The municipalities, currently under administration, are amongst the 16 municipalities that have been placed under the provincial care earlier this year due to their financial distress, instability, and collapse of services. They have in the past months made headlines over sporadic service delivery protests by residents, coupled with the adverse audit opinions from the Auditor-General (AG).

In his latest 2017/18 local government audit outcomes report, Kimi Makwetu outlined that the R1,6 billion loss of investments made with the VBS Mutual Bank significantly weakened the financial position of municipalities in this province. He said 13 municipalities, including these two, have received a disclaimer as the validity of their submitted financial statements was in question. Makwetu further highlighted that consistent disregard of recommendations, lack of commitment, no action and no sense of urgency by accounting officers in many of the municipalities in the province is a contributing factor to their poor financial state.

Parliamentary spokesperson, Malatswa Molepo, says the committee will use the visit to interact with stakeholders including the Cogta MEC, councillors and ward committee members, organised labour and other representative forums regarding the state of these municipalities in an endeavour to assist them from their administrative and financial rut.

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