The party says it has lost hope in Cooperative Governance MEC Bentley Vass’ ability to turn around the state of municipalities. This, as municipalities remain plagued by escalating debts, financial mismanagement, lack of revenue collection, and lack of service provision, amongst other issues. 

The party’s Member of the Provincial Legislature (MPL) Grantham Steenkamp says the state of municipalities in the province is a great concern as the poor of the poorest are the worst affected. He adds the “provincial government’s last-minute scramble to renegotiate payment terms with Eskom remains largely reactive and fails to address the root causes of the crisis”. 

His statement comes just days after Eskom implemented electricity interruptions to four municipalities in the province due to non-payment.

OFM News earlier this week reported on how residents in the Kamiesberg, Richtersveld, Emthanjeni and Tsantsabane Local Municipalities had to brace themselves for power outages due to the municipalities’ non-payment of Eskom services. 

The power utility’s spokesperson, Stefanie Jansen van Rensburg, said these municipalities have on several occasions failed to adhere to their payment conditions. She says the power utility had resolved to restrict electricity supply in efforts to recoup the money they are owed. The Tsantsabane Municipality alone owes Eskom more than R150 million.

Whilst these municipalities have so far paid an acceptable portion of their electricity debt to Eskom to have their power restored, Jansen van Rensburg warned that failure to adhere to their payment agreements will leave Eskom with no choice but to restrict its services.

“While Covid-19 has understandably affected revenue collection, placing financial strain on municipalities that in turn struggle to pay service providers, the problem is far greater than this. The bigger part of the problem stems from poor municipal management coupled with bloated personnel establishments, that see too many officials who are not fit for purpose, having allowed municipalities to slide into a total state of disrepair. This stems from a toxic mix of cadre deployment, unrealistic budgets and ill financial discipline that sees municipalities rather utilising funds to pay the salaries of connected cronies, or squandering funds on corruption, instead of paying off their debt,” said Steenkamp.

The Auditor-General has expressed concern over the state of municipalities in the province, indicating in his latest report that only one municipality in the province managed to produce a clean audit for the 2018/19 Local Government Audit Outcomes.

OFM News