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North West Provincial Legislature’s Standing Committee on Provincial Public Accounts (SCOPA) led by the Chairperson, Mahlakeng Mahlakeng has requested the Department of Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development and Department of Local Government to urgently assist Ditsobotla and Lekwa-Teemane Local Municipalities to develop a recovery plan that will ensure that salaries and statutory deductions are paid in the last three months of the financial year ending June 2017.

This came after the Standing Committee held an oversight meeting with Mayors and senior management of both municipalities, where they admitted to delays on payments of salaries of employees and statutory deductions including, South African Revenue Services deductions, Unemployment Insurance Fund and other Municipal Gratuity Fund Deductions dating from August 2016.

Mahlakeng said the departments should assist the municipalities in developing the recovery plan and provide key personnel who will ensure that salaries and statutory deductions are paid in the last three months of the financial year ending June 2017.

“The Municipal Public Accounts Committees should also be involved in the turn-around strategy.  There is no political and administrative leadership in both municipalities hence there were delays on such important legal payments affecting employees. In Lekwa-Teemane local municipality, the position of the Chief Financial Officer has been vacant for a long time, and consultant is being paid over R3 million to manage its Budget and Treasury Office.

“There is also no clarity on whether the more than three Provincial Government’s interventions at these municipalities yielded any positive results,” said Mahlakeng.

Local Government and Human Settlements Head of Department, Ephraim Motoko said the department is assisting with many interventions including secondment of senior managers and implementation of valuation roll,  credit control debt collection, and revenue enhancement measures.

“We are also assisting with collection of debt from different government departments. Stability in senior management positions has been a challenge in these municipalities,” said Motoko.

Linda Negovhle from the Department of Finance said both municipalities’ budget is not sustainable and they are unable to pay its budgeted obligations including creditors due to low revenue collection and high consultancy fees on finance and legal functions which are part of their organograms. 

“Both municipalities have outsourced its credit control functions however there is no improvement in collection rates. They also cannot pay Auditor General, their owing Eskom more than R14m , 3^rdParties and SARS which resulted in constant accruals.

“At Lekwa-Teemane, Equitable Share (which includes administration cost and community services) is R39 million whilst employee cost is only R57 million. In Ditsobotla the Equitable Share is R89,9 million whilst employee cost is R169.9million. Their salaries are then funded by their revenue collection which is not reliable, that is why they find themselves in this situation,” said Negovhle.

The Acting Municipal Manager at Lekwa-Teemane Local Municipality,  Mokgatlhe Ratlhogo said employees and councillors’ salaries were paid on 27 March 2017 instead of the prescribed date of the 25^ththrough the conditional grants on understanding that Dr. Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality could intervene through provision of a short-term loan of R3 million.

“A Special Municipal Council meeting in March 2017 has also resolved to pass a resolution to request the Department of Local Government and Human Settlements to assist with an amount of R14, 1 million for remuneration and salaries for April to June 2017 as the amount will be covered during the implementation of revenue enhancement strategies. 

“We still owe SARS for January to March 2017,” said Ratlhogo. 

He said the municipality has pleaded with both departments to assist on filing critical positions including senior managers.

The Municipal Manager for Ditsobotla Local Municipality, Tsatsi Ramagaga said due to serious cash flow challenges from August 2016, salaries and statutory deductions were not paid on time.

“Main contributors are non-implementation of credit controls and unavailability of capital budget from own revenue. Although we had these challenges, the municipality managed to pay salaries and statutory deductions with the last tranche of equitable share on 17 March 2017. 

“We have made arrangement with SARS to pay the balance in tranches as and when the funds are available.

“The municipality is owed over R348 million by government, businesses and households. The National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs is assisting the municipality in finalising revenue enhancement plan,” said Ramagaga.

Mahlakeng said the municipalities should submit a detailed report on Councillors and municipal employees who do not pay municipal rates and taxes.

 “Municipalities should conduct consultative meetings to encourage communities to pay services as municipalities rely on revenue to improve service delivery,”M ahlakeng said. 

taungdailynews@gmail.com

BY BAKANG MOKOTO

North West under-12 Danone Nations Cup provincial soccer finals will take place on May 6 at the Alabama Stadium in Klerksdorp. Mmamitlwa Primary School of Saulspoort will be there for the first time.

Moses Mahau who is the coach, said that they entered the competition for the first time last year and they are thrilled to advance to the next stage at their second attempt. There will be 3 other regional winners competing in the province.

“We are a rural school, located in Raserapane Section, Moruleng in the Moses Kotane district. So we do not have good facilities. Even though we play on a sand field, we have the same chance as any other school of going further in the competition. Look at Benny’s Sport and Academy. They are also a rural school but they won the national finals last year and finished 14^th at the world finals, out of 32 schools,” Mohau said.

Mmamitlwa qualified after winning their regional finals that took place on 1^st April this year.

There were 12 schools competing in the regional finals and they were divided into 3 groups of 4 schools each.  One of the teams in their pool was disqualified and Mmamitlwa won one and drew the other of their pool games to finish on top of their group.

They met Segwetlhane Primary School in the semi-finals, and won in a penalty shootout.

“It was a tough semi-final. Segwetlhane scored first, but we managed to equalised. We eventually won the game on penalties. That put us into the final against Matlhware of Rustenburg Rural. That game also ended in a 1-all draw and Mmamitlwa won on penalties.

Mahau started teaching at the school in 2013. He has no formal coaching qualification, but he coaches at two local clubs and his experience has helped him with the school team.

“I am passionate about development and it is the responsibility of school coaches to teach the children the basic rules of the game. That will instill good habits at an early age to help develop them to professional level.

“It is critical at this young age to build the players’ self-esteem and confidence. That comes primarily from the home environment so I encourage parents to get involved with every aspect of the child from their school work to extra murals,” he said.

Mahau also encouraged the parents to watch their kids whenever they can. He further said he always tried to motivate and encourage them.

“I hope they will all come to the provincials as that is great motivation for the team to perform well. Although I have no idea what to expect at the provincial finals, I am pretty confident that my team has the same chance of getting into the national finals as any other school there. If we get the systems into place and stick to our structures we can do as well as Benny’s,” he concluded.

Competing schools:

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JOHANNESBURG – A champion of positivity, Ontlametse Phalatse, has passed away.

She passed away on Tuesday night at Dr George Mukhari Academic Hospital in Ga-Rankuwa, outside Pretoria.

The 18-year-old was one of two South African girls living with the rare genetic disorder.

Progeria causes rapid aging.

Her doctors predicted that she would only survive until her 14th birthday.

Last month, President Jacob Zuma fulfilled her wish to meet him.

The family will release a statement later on Wednesday morning.

– eNCA