The downgrade of the Govan Mbeki Local Municipality (Bethal, Charl Cilliers, Embalenhle, Evander, Kinross, Leandra, Secunda, Trichardt) from level five to four has been a long time coming due to the ANC government’s years of mismanagement and corruption.
The Freedom Front Plus (VF Plus) has been pointing out the mismanagement of funds and laxity in correcting it for a long time.
The downgrade by the Auditor-General (AG) means that it becomes a high-risk municipality with increased funding costs. It will also affect councillors’ salaries.
Councillors who joined the Municipality on 1 July last year will now be compensated in line with grade 4.
Under the current circumstances, there is no possibility that the economy will grow. The Municipality is already in a technical recession with growing unemployment, and the downgrade does not bode well for the future.
Last month, the Municipality received its third consecutive qualified audit opinion with findings from the Office of the AG.
The Mayor, Mr Nhlakanipho Zuma, tabled the mid-term performance report during a recent council meeting and told the Council that the Municipality had successfully applied for a disaster fund transfer to facilitate its budget adjustment.
While tabling the Eskom and Rand Water accounts, he said that the Municipality had paid R34,5 million to Eskom and R32,5 million to Rand Water.
Despite these payments, Mr Zuma admitted that the Municipality failed to generate enough revenue. Consequently, the budget needed to be adjusted.
That is why it is crucially important to implement drastic interventions aimed at improving fiscal policy and discipline.
The Freedom Front Plus is calling on the accounting officer, Mr Elliot Maseko, and Mr Zuma to urgently address the critical issue of insufficient revenue collection.
The permanent appointment of councillors lacking the necessary experience also greatly contributed to the Municipality’s downgrade.
Appointing individuals who lack the necessary expertise in positions of authority could result in ineffective decision-making, particularly when working with qualified employees in critical departments, such as finance.
Effective oversight and cooperation between councillors, officials and committees are essential for improving revenue collection, and to ensure that the Municipality’s budget is spent wisely to provide quality services to the community.
;
