Picture: Sewer spillage in Ipelegeng Township, near Schweizer Reneke/Supplied
By OBAKENG MAJE
The Democratic Alliance in North West said it has noted the National Treasury’s decision to withhold conditional grant funding from nine municipalities in the province. The DA Member of Provincial Legislature (MPL), Freddy Sonakile said, this is a heavy blow to service delivery in the North West.
The affected municipalities are Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality, the City of Matlosana, and the Rustenburg, Moses Kotane, JB Marks, Madibeng, Ratlou, Ditsobotla, and Mamusa Local Municipalities, where they will accumulatively lose R460 million in conditional grant funding.
Sonakile further said, Madibeng is the biggest loser with a cut of R145,408 million, followed by Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati at R119,453 million and Rustenburg at R65,341 million. He added that, the JB Marks and Matlosana are also in the top 5 worst affected municipalities losing R59 million and R26 million respectively.
“The ANC-governed municipalities not only fail to invest in infrastructure development and maintenance but when they receive funding, fail to spend the money on projects it is intended for.
“North West suffers a massive infrastructure backlog, National Treasury’s decision, although understandable, will put additional strain on the already limited cash flow of municipalities, who mostly adopted unfunded budgets,” said Sonakile.
He said the decision has been communicated by the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana to the North West MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA), Nono Maloyi, and regrettably, it will have far-reaching consequences for infrastructure development, maintenance, and service delivery in the province’s worst performing municipalities.
The chairperson of North West Provincial Legislature’s Portfolio Committee on Premier, Finance, Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Aaron Motswana said: “What is disheartening is the loss of funds meant for water by the Dr Ruth District Municipality, whereas local municipalities under it are heavily affected by lack of water.
“The report indicates that R119 453 000 of Regional Bulk Infrastructure Grant (RBIG) will be lost by Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati alone. Other struggling local municipalities such as Mamusa, Ditsobotla, and Moses Kotane failed to spend Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG)and there is a lack of service delivery in their areas.”
Motswana said the committee encourages Maloyi to ensure accountability in this regard and provide progress on consequence management to them. He said it is time that failure to spend grants is characterized as treason against the state and communities in their respective constituencies.
“Whilst Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District is advancing spending on water tankering, it fails to spend money directed to construction and upgrading of water and sanitation treatment plants in their category B municipalities to ensure communities receive water.
“The municipalities are owing huge debts to Eskom and losing the Integrated National Electrification Programme(INEP) and Energy Demand Management Grant that would have assisted in managing and mitigating Eskom debt by municipalities. MEC Maloyi must act on this negligence and dereliction of duties,” said Motswana.
Meanwhile, Maloyi spokesperson, Tumelo Maruping said, Maloyi is indeed aware of the letter because Godongwana wrote to him. Maruping said the National Treasury did make municipalities aware in February about this matter.
“Maloyi had an engagement with all the affected municipalities to discuss recovery plans to assist municipalities to commit this money to service deliverables.
“The information Maloyi received was that all municipalities did submit those recovery plans to the National Treasury, however, according to the Minister’s letters, the plan of nine municipalities in the province could not get approved, hence we are in this situation today,” he said.
The Guardian 