The Democratic Alliance in Mpumalanga called on the MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Ms Busisiwe Shiba, to revise her decision to lift the provincial administration in Govan Mbeki Municipality as their financial crisis continues to worsen.
The MEC stated in May that the provincial government would uplift the administration in Govan Mbeki based on “positive developments” at the municipality.
The DA in the province has since requested a report of these developments, to no avail.
“We finds it extremely concerning that despite a worsening financial crisis in this municipality and alongside lack of leadership, the MEC decided to lift the administration,” said Ms Trudie Grové-Morgan, Member of the Mpumalanga Legislature and DA spokesperson on CoGTA.
Currently, the municipality owes R2.7-billion to creditors, of which R2.3-billion is owed to Eskom and R372-million is owed to Rand Water.
“The DA finds it concerning that even though their financial recovery approach has proven unsuccessful in the space of the past three years, the provincial government still chooses to rely on it,” said Ms Grové-Morgan.
The DA said despite the above-mentioned financial recovery approach, the collection of revenue through the sale of services is still a major challenge in this municipality.
Ms Grové-Morgan said for the month ending June 2021, the municipality was owed R2.58-billion, money which – if the municipality could capitalise on it, would be able to service its debt to service providers and improve the lives of the residents.
“The above statistics reiterates the financial distress that the municipality is in as a result of an inability to capitalise on revenue from the sale of services. It is this inability that further results in fruitless and wasteful expenditure as the municipality is unable to settle accounts on time, thus generating interest.
“For June, the municipality was charged just over R9-million in interest,” said Ms Grové-Morgan.
She also said the DA will write to MEC Shiba and request that she revise her decision and also provide detailed information relating to the positive developments of which she has spoken.
