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Makana Finances Run Dry

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Dear Editor

The Makana Municipality is once again faced with spiralling debt of tens of millions of rands to ESKOM and officials cannot raise sufficient income to settle this electricity account and pay salaries.

Despite her best efforts, the Chief Financial Officer has been unable to generate sufficient income to settle ESKOM debt and pay salaries. This is due to a shockingly low 52% collection rate of municipal rates and taxes.

The low collection rates resulted in ESKOM not being paid for June or July. For the municipality to remain compliant with their debt relief agreement with ESKOM, a whopping R58 million has to be paid in full by 31 August.

To mitigate this, the CFO requested that all municipal staff take time off in lieu of payment for overtime worked. The overtime monies would then be returned from the Budget and Treasury Office to Corporate Services, to settle the debt.

The result was a violent municipal wild-cat strike that left most of Makhanda without water, electricity and other municipal services for several days, as workers protested the fact that they had already worked the overtime and demanded their money be paid out.

The Municipal Manager has had to rescind the instruction from the CFO in order to restore some semblance of service delivery to the city.

I shall write to the Eastern Cape MEC for COGTA, Zolile Williams, to ascertain whether the consumption of services is being accurately measured, and whether there is an adequate billing system in place as per Sections 95 (d) and (e) of the Systems Act.

I shall also request that he initiate a skills audit within the municipality, to ascertain whether officials within the finance and billing departments are indeed capacitated to do the required work.

What the Makana Municipality needs is clean governance. Where the DA governs, we ensure that the public purse is respected and budgets and grants are spent on what they were intended for. We also ensure that we employ people who are capable and fit for purpose. The residents of Makana deserve nothing less.

Regards

Jane Cowley MPL
Frontier Constituency Leader

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