The committee has in a report revealed that it is not pleased with the municipality’s expenditure of the grant and that it has failed to meet its targets. 

This comes after the municipality only spent a total of 31% of its budget at the end of January 2019. The report indicates that the municipality only spent the minimum on costs relating to the provision of water, sanitation, houses and other services. 

The Chairperson of the Committee, Nocawe Mafu, is quoted in the report as having expressed disappointment that the metro has not met their target for the end of January, which was to spend 51% of the budget on improving services and not 31%.

It is in indicated that the expenditure totalling only 31% includes over R11 million on social services, over R2 million on planning, more than R41 million on human settlements and housing, over R33 million on roads and stormwater, just over a million on sanitation, over R30 million on water and over R589 000 on waste and fleet management.

The committee demands answers as to why the municipality has failed to meet its target and did not spend its grant accordingly to meet the needs of residents.

The committee, in a report, has further raised more concerns about the other underperforming directorates.

The report further indicates that the municipality has, in response to the committee, vowed to spend its 2019/20 budget accordingly and ensure that all unfinished projects, as well as the performance of all contractors, are better supervised.

The financially troubled municipality has committed to reduce the budget of poor performing portfolios and allocate more resources to performing ones, and to ensure that technical teams appointed will monitor the progress of all USDG funded projects.

The municipality has for years made headlines with opposition parties in the council demanding answers as to why the budget of the municipality is not being used accordingly. Many councillors have in the past raised questions regarding the municipality’s financial woes, which hampers on service delivery.

The municipality, highly indebted to its water board, Bloem Water, has been under fire for a lack of basic services such as refuse removal, poor road infrastructure, and failure to eradicate pit toilets in areas such as Botshabelo and Thaba Nchu, amongst other issues.

OFM News