The progressive deterioration of Free State municipalities, including those that have been under provincial administration for quite some time, indicates that the Free State is like a sinking ship on a non sustainable course with the ANC government at the steering wheel and it is clear that the ANC’s only solution to the crisis seems to be increasing already excessively high taxes and levies, said Tammy Wessels, FF Plus MPL in the Free State Legislature, after a meeting of the Legislature’s portfolio committee on cooperative governance (COGTA).
“The two Free State municipalities that were placed under administration are not doing much better after the provincial government’s intervention. On the contrary, it seems that both Mafube and Masilonyane are actually worse off. The damage is irrevocably great and as long as the government that allowed such shocking deterioration in the first place is in power, it will never come right.
“The Department of Cooperative Governance (COGTA) and the local municipalities of Mafube (Frankfort, Villiers, Tweeling, Cornelia), Masilonyana (Theunissen, Verkeerdevlei, Brandfort, Winburg) and Mantsopa (Ladybrand, Tweespruit, Excelsior, Hobhouse) appeared before the committee.
In 2017, Mafube and Masilonyana were placed under administration, in accordance with Section 139 of the Constitution, due to their non-compliance with certain legal requirements.
“Mafube and Masilonyana’s outstanding debt owed to Eskom amounts to R57 million and R46 million respectively. They also owe R87 million and R21 million for water. The municipalities have also not been paying over the money for third party salary deductions, like medical aid and pension fund contributions.
“The FF Plus lodged a complaint with the Public Protector (PP) in 2017 about the non payment of the third party deductions, because the practice is illegal and is prevalent in various Free State municipalities, like Mafube, Masilonyana, Mangaung (Bloemfontein, Dewetsdorp), Kopanong (Trompsburg), Nala (Bothaville), Mantsopa and Ngwathe (Parys).
“In Mafube, employees’ pension fund contributions are not paid over to the relevant funds, but are used for the municipality’s operating expenses. The same thing happened to Mafube and Masilonyana’s conditional grants that they received for the upgrading and maintenance of municipal infrastructure. These grants were either not used, due to poor planning and management, or they were used to cover operating expenses – mainly to pay salaries. The consequences of the mismanagement are clear for all to see, particularly the residents that have to put up with failing water supply and sewage systems that result in sewage running down the streets and sporadic, or no, water supply.
“The three municipalities that appeared before the committee are not the only ones whose financial positions are lamentable, the finances of all the municipalities in the Free State are in chaos.
“The Matjhabeng local municipality, which includes Welkom, Ventersburg, Allanridge, Virginia, Odendaalsrus and Hennenman, owes Eskom and Sedibeng Water R1.74 billion and R1.98 billion respectively. At the end of December 2017, the municipality’s outstanding creditors amounted to nearly R3.73 billion. Sedibeng Water has been threatening to cut off the water supply to the municipality and the municipal region has been struggling with load shedding for quite some time due to their non-payment to Eskom. The towns are further burdened by severe infrastructure and service delivery problems, like rundown water and sewage systems due to a lack of maintenance and upgrading.
“At the end of December 2017, the total debt of Maluti-a-Phofung (Harrismith, Kestell and Phuthaditjhaba) amounted to R2.71 billion. Apparently, the municipality is also going to be placed under Section 139 administration in the near future.
“These are just a few examples of how the government has failed the Free State.
“The FF Plus will do everything in its power to prevent municipalities from excessively increasing taxes and levies just because they are in financial crisis due to mismanagement and because they have their priorities wrong.
“It is clear that the ANC government is not at all capable of managing the Free State municipalities. Even their attempts at intervening are failing miserably and this is because they are the ones that caused the problems at the municipalities in the first place. It is a pointless exercise and it is only making things worse.
“The only real solution for our municipalities is to establish an accountable multiparty coalition government that includes the FF Plus. A government that will be accountable to its voters, that will promote the interests of the tax payer and that will not be happy to accept the current state of affairs,” Wessels said.
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