Tebogo Msimanga |
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says it notes National Treasury’s decision to withhold conditional grant funding from nine North West municipalities. This decision has been communicated by the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, to the North West MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nono Maloyi, and regrettably, it will have far-reaching consequences for infrastructure development, maintenance, and service delivery in the province’s worst performing municipalities.
DA North West Spokesperson on Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs Freddy Sonakile said according to National Treasury, the decision to withhold conditional grant funding was informed by the poor performance of municipalities against the requirements of each grant allocated to the province. “The conditional grants affected are the Municipal Infrastructure Grant, Energy Efficiency and Demand-Side Management Grant, and Water Services Infrastructure Grant, amongst others.
The Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality, the City of Matlosana, and the Rustenburg, Moses Kotane, JB Marks, Madibeng, Ratlou, Ditsobotla, and Mamusa local municipalities will accumulatively lose R460 million in conditional grant funding”.
Madibeng is the biggest loser with a cut of R145,408 million, followed by Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati at R119,453 million and Rustenburg at R65,341 million. JB Marks and Matlosana are also in the top 5 worst affected municipalities losing R59 million and R26 million respectively.
Sonakile further said this is a heavy blow to service delivery in North West. “ANC-governed municipalities not only fail to invest in infrastructure development and maintenance but when they receive funding, fail to spend the money on projects it is intended for”.
He added that North West suffers a massive infrastructure backlog, National Treasury’s decision, although understandable, will put additional strain on the already limited cashflow of municipalities, who mostly adopted unfunded budgets.
