MOLOGADI KEKANA
DELMAS – Mpumalanga’s Democratic Alliance says CoGTA is persistent that the department for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs is responsible to place Victor Khanye Local Municipality under administration.
The DA in Mpumalanga called on the Mpumalanga MEC of CoGTA, Busisiwe Shiba, to monitor the effectiveness of the support which is given to Victor Khanye local municipality in the coming months and to place it under administration should the financial turmoil not improve.
DA says this is due to the VKLM’s inability to service their debt to Rand Water on time, and has been plagued by water pressure reductions and water throttling over the past couple of years and in recent months the water pressure was reduced by 50%.
Furthermore DA says “the action by Rand Water further highlights the inability of this municipality to live up to its constitutional mandates, because the reduction affected the majority of the residents in this municipality who were left without water.”
Timeless News contacted CoGTA on this call from the DA and the spokesperson for CoGTA cited the Provincial Treasury as the responsible department, “The function to support Municipalities on financial management resides with the Provincial Treasury. This is an arrangement adopted provincially,” said CoGTA spokesperson George Mthethwa.
The DA Spokesperson for Mpumalanga on CoGTA Trudie Grovè-Morgan says “It is the MEC’s [CoGTA] responsibility not treasury”. Regarding the response from CoGTA Grovè-Morgan says the MEC has not yet responded, “No not yet, they always take weeks or never”, she said.
“They are passing the buck, as this was the case in gmm and Dr JS [Moroka]. As is the case of the financial recovery plans”, she added
“Even with the effectiveness of any strategy in a municipality it is the role of CoGTA because the MEC takes the decision to place a municipality under administration but liaises with the minister”, DA added in their statement.
Furthermore, DA says that during an in an oversight visit conducted in local schools, the school learners and teachers were seen storing water in five liter containers in order to have sufficient water to adhere to Covid-19 regulations.
Furthermore DA says that through liaison with the CoGTA MEC it was discovered that VKLM is in serious financial crisis which it may not be able to recover from.
“In addition to the above, the liquidity ratio is way below the accepted norm of 1.5 to 2.1 as it is 0.3.”, they added.
Timeless News has sent enquiry to the Media Liaison officer Letshela Jonas who had since asked which area we are seeking a response. It however remains to be seen where the Treasury lies in the support and monitoring of the VKLM’s financial crisis.
