The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) on Thursday said Cabinet would, in February, consider a detailed implementation plan to deal with the more than R14-billion in debt owned by municipalities to power utility Eskom.
This plan is part of CoGTA’s municipal recovery programme, which was launched this year to assist municipalities that need urgent support to deal with governance, financial management and service delivery issues.
In March, the department indicated that 7% of the country’s municipalities had been classified as well-functioning, about 31% as reasonably functional, 31% almost dysfunctional and the remaining 31% dysfunctional.
In addition, the National Treasury earlier this year identified 166 municipalities that are struggling financially and 122 municipalities that have unfunded budgets.
CoGTA stated the electricity debt implementation plan will go a long way to prevent future challenges of low collection for electricity and reduce the debt, as well as promote responsible communities that pay their services.
CLEAN GOVERNANCE
CoGTA said it continued to address fraud and corruption during the year.
The Hawks are investigating municipalities, through the Clean Audit Project, which, so far, has had 311 cases reported, 98 cases taken to court and 178 under investigation, while 35 are considered finalised or withdrawn.
Additionally, the Limpopo provincial government announced it would withdraw seven mayors who were implicated in the VBS bank debacle. Gauteng and North West have also launched forensic investigations into allegations against persons relating to the VBS scandal.
“A lot of work has been done over the past few months to build viable municipalities which deliver services efficiently to our people, while also creating space for economic development and job creation in the municipal spaces.
“A lot more work still remains to be done, working with other departments and other spheres of government,” said CoGTA.