Treasury instructs Sol to probe R500m
NATIONAL Treasury has instructed Sol Plaatje Municipality to investigate the R500 million investment that was allocated to improve service delivery in the city.
Premier Zamani Saul in April last year announced that half a billion rand would go towards restoring the sparkle of the city, where he promised that potholes and leaking sewage and water pipes would be a thing of the past by December 2021.
According to a report on the final budget and benchmark assessment report for the 2020/21 budget that was submitted by National Treasury, Sol Plaatje Municipality has R500 million worth of projects that will be funded by provincial government, where the details of this fund “are not yet clear as the Northern Cape provincial government has not yet gazetted the amounts”.
It was resolved that the municipality needed to “investigate whether the R500 million investment by provincial departments has been gazetted and which financial years are applicable”.
It was noted that the Frances Baard District Municipality made R4.2 million available for Sol Plaatje Municipality to deal with operations and maintenance during the 2020/21 financial year.
“Sol Plaatje is part of the implementation task team formed by the Office of the Premier to deal with service delivery issues.”
It pointed out that the financial health of the municipality was “on the decline” due to the municipality being unable to pay its “huge debtor’s book of R1.3 billion”, pay for bulk purchases, collect debts and generate revenue.
“According to the municipality, for the 2020/21 financial year, the municipality’s average monthly expenditure is R173 million of which R130 million is committed to employee-related costs, Eskom and the Water Boards.”
National Treasury advised that the municipality could not afford to borrow money to finance its operations.
“The municipal jurisdiction is filthy due to the non-removal of refuse on time. There is sewage spillage, water interruptions, street lights and high-mast lights that are not working. The municipality is challenged with service delivery riots and strikes due to poor delivery of fragile services. The municipality appointed a private company to assist with sanitation challenges as there are no professional engineers in the municipality.
“The municipality does not address some of its service delivery challenges because of an insufficient budget.”
