SECUNDA – Govan Mbeki Municipality’s executive mayor, Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma, delivered the state of the municipality address at the Lillian Ngoyi Centre on Wednesday, 12 May.
Mr Zuma said the municipality is currently under serious financial constraints and is unable to keep up its obligations and paying its debts.
“We are currently sited with a debt of about R2.7-billion while we are being owed an amount of about R2-billion by our communities and businesses.
“If we can be in a position to collect all our debt, then we will be close to being financially stable,” said Mr Zuma.
Mr Zuma said the municipality wants to introduce an incentive scheme to make sure that residents don’t live with huge amounts of debt, but instead are given a chance to find relief.
Mr Zuma said when the council sit to approve the budget, they will discuss the possibility of writing off old debt – 50 per cent for a residential site and up to 30 per cent for businesses.
The mayor called on those who owe the municipality to take advantage of the said incentive scheme.
The municipality is not going to be this lenient in the future. It will enforce by-laws after the given grace period.
The municipality will intensify electricity cut-offs to those who default on their accounts, and will also clamp down on illegal connections.
He said the municipality is daily looking for systems that will enhance municipal property and minimise the possibility of misuse of funds.
“It has come to our attention that some of our officials act in a manner that doesn’t portray us as an objective institution.
“The majority of our officials are hard-working, dedicated and deserve to be viewed as such. It is sometimes very frustrating that some of our officials have limitations in performing their duties because of lack of support.
“We must give sufficient support to the employees to avoid outsourcing the basic responsibilities of the municipality, it is very important for the municipality to build internal capacity, ” said Mr Zuma.
He believes some people want to sabotage the means of intervention that seeks to change the lives of the people of the municipality.
These “saboteurs” are those who steal municipal infrastructure, vandalise municipal property, and those who continue to take legal action against the municipality to prove that they are better.
“They do not understand that they are contributing to the growing debt of R2.7 -billion which later culminates into services not being delivered.”
Mr Zuma said the municipality will fight water leaks with help from the government and the private sector.
He indicated that the municipality is looking at the possibility of going off the grid by installing solar systems in all municipality buildings.
They are pushing for their buildings to be environmentally friendly. Projects worth more than R200-million are currently being implemented in the municipality, and the road infrastructure is receiving attention.
“Unity of Govan Mbeki municipality is the only solution to the challenges facing the municipality, with each component playing their given role, paying of services shall enable both the council and administration to deliver services to the satisfaction of the communities.”
