These sentiments, centred on the impact of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic on local municipalities and their ability to render services, come from Professor at the North West University’s (NWU’s) School of Government Studies, Melvin Diedericks. The NWU academic, stresses, local municipalities have experienced revenue shortfalls due to halted service delivery, during lockdown levels 4 and 5.

This is in addition to the changes that had to be made to 2020/21 budgets, in a bid to divert funds towards the procurement of personal protective equipment (PPE) and ample sanitizer. While he does acknowledge that national government did avail funds to assist municipalities, he insists more need to be done in advance.

He says in the long run, municipalities need to submit better financial plans and adequately prepare for similar pandemics.

Diederick’s analysis comes on the back of the Auditor General’s report on municipalities released last week, which reveals that no municipality in the Free State or North West attained a clean audit. AG, Kimi Makwetu raised concerns regarding the lack of financial controls and accountability in those provinces.

The Free State is home to the only metro in the country – Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality – that is currently under administration. Alone, Mangaung owes Bloem Water more than R 1 billion for services rendered.

OFM News