The National Treasury (NT) has announced that it is planning to withhold R262,5 million in conditional allocations from the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (NMBM). This follows the Metro’s failure to effectively spend its capital budget once again.
The FF Plus believes that this could drive the NMBM over the edge of financial ruin.
The situation is exacerbated by the fact that the Metro already forfeited around R430 million in the last financial year as a result of the ANC-led coalition’s inability to spend funds effectively. It is a clear indication of poor financial management and the mismanagement of resources that are vital for ensuring service delivery to residents.
The funds that are currently in jeopardy include:
• R14,5 million for informal settlements – upgrading partnership grant;
• R143,4 million in urban settlements’ development grants; and
• R104,6 million of the regional bulk infrastructure grant.
These amounts can make a massive difference to developing and improving the Metro’s infrastructure. If these funds are forfeited, service delivery will continue to decline and residents will, unfortunately, have to suffer the consequences of crumbling roads and failing water and power infrastructure.
The FF Plus also voiced its concern about the ANC and its coalition partners’ dereliction of duty and lack of accountability for failures. What is particularly alarming is that smaller coalition partners have become rubber stamps for ANC decisions, without taking the wider financial impact into account.
In addition, the ANC’s constant internal battle with the EFF has a detrimental impact on the Metro’s administration seeing as these parties are more concerned about political survival than service delivery.
The FF Plus demands that the Metro be decentralised so that towns, such as Uitenhage and Despatch, can govern themselves and have their own budgets. Losing these funds will be an absolute disaster for Nelson Mandela Bay. It is time that residents see who is truly committed to sound governance.
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