Northern Cape provincial and local government must collectively shoulder the blame for the collapse of municipalities, as National Treasury withholds equitable share allocations of at least three municipalities and salary payments are put on ice.
Letters issued to employees of Renosterberg and Thembelihle municipalities, on 19 and 24 March respectively, warn that salary payments will not be processed on time due to them not receiving their equitable share allocations.
The sentiments are echoed in a formal letter from National Treasury, issued to !Kheis on 3 March, stating their intention to invoke Section 216 (2) of the Constitution to stop the transfer of equitable share and conditional grant allocations to the municipality. According to National Treasury, this is due to !Kheis’s persistent failure to pay creditors within 30 days of receiving invoices. This includes its failure to pay SARS and the Pension Fund, with arrear payments totaling R3,8 million and R29,4 million respectively.
The DA sympathizes with officials who face financial insecurity as scheduled payments, their own personal cashflow, and retirement funds hang in the balance. Local government has failed its employees and must be held accountable for causing them significant financial damage.
While the situation reveals failed municipal management, it also exposes provincial government’s critical inability to address municipal failures, despite years of warnings and a series of ineffective local government interventions.
The DA will, during Thursday’s scheduled question time session in the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature, be asking the Premier, Dr Zamani Saul, to explain how provincial government allowed these municipalities to regress so badly and whether there are any other municipalities facing the same fate.
We also want him to hold municipalities to account and explain how they will fix this crisis. They must take responsibility for the mess they have created and provide tangible plans to restore service delivery. As stated by National Treasury, this requires making the necessary but “unpleasant and unpopular decisions regarding revenues and expenditure projections.”
A collective effort is required to get Northern Cape municipalities working again.