Cogta concerned over Tshwane’s dwindling finances amid mayor election
Tshwane candidate mayor Cilliers Brink promised that to stabilise finances, his administration would rid the metro of any “assets” that only cost it money.
The Gauteng Cogta is concerned about the effect of the financial strain is Tshwane experiencing.
Spokesperson Kgapa Mabusela said the department was concerned about Tshwane’s financial health based on some of the key financial indicators noted in the municipality’s 2021/22 audited annual report and financial statements.
“The City incurred an operating deficit of R4-billion as a result of actual operating expenditure exceeding actual operating revenue – excluding capital grants – in 2021/22.”
Mabusela said as of June 30, 2022, Tshwane’s cash coverage ratio was at 0.24 per month and this indicated that the cash was not sufficient to cover the fixed monthly operating expenditure.
“A financially healthy municipality must at least have sufficient cash and cash equivalents of between one to three months, as per National Treasury (NT) norms and standards.
For the 2021/22 financial year, even though the collection rate was within the norm of 95%, the net debtor’s days reflect the metro takes 60 days to collect debts.”
Mabusela said NT had set 30 days.
“The metro’s cash flow continues to be under strain.”
He said Cogta had also noted unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful (UIF&W) expenditure continuously increased year-on-year from “R13.3- billion in 2020/21 to R16.7-billion in 2021/22”.
During his state of the province address in the Gauteng legislature last week, Premier Panyaza Lesufi said his office was worried about Tshwane.
“Tshwane has deteriorated, is struggling to pay Eskom and the latest Auditor General (AG) report has painted a bleak picture of a collapsing municipality.”
He said the province would intervene in the municipality as a matter of urgency.
He also bid farewell to Randall Williams.
Randall Williams is no longer Tshwane mayor, Speaker Dr Murunwa Makwarela told the media at Tshwane House last Tuesday.
This means that Williams’ mayoral committee has been dissolved.
Makwarela said the metro had accepted the “wrong” resignation of the two Williams handed in on February 13.
He said after seeking legal opinion from an external legal firm, it was decided that the first was valid.
The multiparty coalition government in Tshwane has since endorsed Cilliers Brink as a mayoral candidate, who immediately promised that to stabilise finances, his administration would rid the metro of any “assets” that only cost it money.
One such asset was Wonderboom airport, north of Pretoria.
“There are many businesses which have nothing to do with the metro’s functions,” said Brink.
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The coalition holds over a 50% majority in the council.
“Tshwane has financial issues and the airport has incurred these for several years. This facility is not an asset, but a liability.”
According to Brink, the metro’s expenditure had exceeded income “for quite a time”.
He said a recent AG report showed that there were serious financial issues that he needed to get to the bottom of once elected.
“Once elected, I will sit with the Mayco (mayoral committee) and the city manager to see to what extent they have implemented measures announced by National Treasury and the AG’s office to assist Tshwane.”
Brink promised a corruption-free city and better service delivery.
“But I am under no illusion of the enormous tasks to fix the city.”
He said only 55% of ratepayers were paying for services.
Providing basic services such as roads, electricity, sewage and streetlights was vital.
“If we get this right, we can draw investment, restore confidence and lift people out of poverty.”
Brink said he was also looking into reducing Tshwane’s reliance on Eskom.
“Load-shedding has a devastating effect on our networks, which worsens transmission losses and further devastates sewage reticulation and water.”
He said the coalition needed to find companies to operate Rooiwal and Pretoria West power stations.
The Tshwane metro police must also be restructured to secure infrastructure since “cable theft and vandalism attacks on infrastructure are overwhelming”.
Coalition oversight group chairperson Dr Cornè Mulder said the group supports the mayoral candidate the DA has proposed.
Mulder said he said in return the DA promised to fix the Rooiwal wastewater treatment plant and service delivery issues in the township communities of Hammanskraal, Soshunguve and Mamelodi, among others.
The EFF has, however, rejected Brink as mayor.
The election of the new mayor is expected on February 28.
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