Dodovu’s concerns comes amidst growing concerns over the financial woes of municipalities in the North West. The provincial government on Thursday formally announced the dissolution of the Mamusa Local Municipality in the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality following reports that the municipality has, amongst others, been failing to provide basic services, to fill vacant posts or to collect revenue. Mamusa falls under the infamous Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality, which forms part of four North West municipalities that invested R314 million with the now-liquidated VBS Mutual Bank.

Dodovu’s concerns also comes just days after Auditor-General, Kimi Makwetu, detailed government’s R61.3 billion irregular expenditure.

Briefing a joint meeting of the Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts and Standing Committee on Appropriations earlier this week, Makwetu announced that irregular expenditure by national and provincial departments, including the expense of state-owned entities, increased from just under R51 billion in 2017/18 to R61.3 billion for the 2018/19 financial year.

Makwetu’s announcement on irregular expenditure by these government entities follows the one he made three months earlier on municipalities when he said tenders worth nearly a billion rand were awarded unfairly.

During the release of the 2017/18 local government results in June, he highlighted that only 18 out of the country’s 257 municipalities could account fully for their expenditure.

OFM News