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Person holds SA money
Mpumalanga Finance MEC Bonakele Majuba has issued a stern warning to provincial government departments owing municipalities in the province.
Majuba has met with representatives of the 20 Mpumalanga municipalities in Mbombela. The financial status of municipalities came under the spotlight during the meeting.
Majuba also says the appointment of unskilled officials to key municipal positions and financial mismanagement are blamed for poor service delivery.
He says action will be taken against municipalities that appoint unqualified individuals.
“It’s criminal and if people who don’t qualify are appointed, consequence management has got to follow. We are going to follow such things and investigate and make sure that the ones who are responsible are going to pay the price for that because everybody who is employed in those municipalities has got to have the requisite qualifications, experience so as we can be able to deliver to the people.”
Majuba has threatened to withhold funds allocated to government departments that do not service their municipal debts.
The provincial Public Works Department is amongst departments owing the rural Bushbuckridge Local Municipality billion of rand.
The municipality’s Chief Financial Officer Thembisile Mathabatha says they rely on conditional grants and without the money owed to them, they are unable to deliver quality services.
“We have experienced a lot of reduction for the past two/ three financial years in terms of grants which means we have to maximise on the collection of revenue and that particular amount for government departments. It’s one billion and the other two billion is business plus households. So, definitely it does affect us a great deal because that actually what we need to do now to collect what is being owed to the municipality for us to be able to provide quality services.”
