Municipalities
Expert: Municipal-owned entities weakened by internal inefficiencies
Organisations such as Johannesburg's City Power and Rand Water are meant to not only provide services to residents but are also historically cash injectors in...
Residents in parts of the North West have been met with regular water cuts and sub-standard water coming out of their taps but the crisis is not limited to that province.
The union said the negotiations took a turn after Samwu and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union received an offer.
Salga said it is disappointed with the deteriorating level of accountability as shown in the Auditor General report for the year 2019/2020 which was released on Wednesday.
The power utility presented the state of its systems at Megawatt Park on Monday.
This despite several reports suggesting administrators were abusing state funds.
The municipality said it was alarmed at the physical attacks on staff and verbal abuse of officials while on duty.
Eyewitness News has seen a report from the provincial government showing its intention to invoke Section 139.
Makwetu joined the likes of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on Tuesday to address the National Council of Province (NCOP)’s local government week virtual session.
MEC Lebogang Maile has led a briefing on the state of municipalities in the province amid calls for public office bearers to come clean about how government money is being spent.
A new study by the Public Affairs Research Institute (Pari) has revealed that instead, a clean audit does not give an indication of the extent to which households especially the poor are able to afford and access basic services.
Deputy Cogta Minister Parks Tau made the admission on Tuesday night while the committee was being briefed on government interventions to bring crisis-hit municipalities back from the brink.
Collectively, the municipalities owe the struggling state-owned entity over R273 million in electricity fees.
Irregular expenditure among the country's municipalities has increased to R32 billion in the 2018/19 financial year.
Service delivery was also affected in these municipalities, with the Makwetu adding that cost-containment measures and recovery plans were introduced in the hope of recovering from the 'huge financial loss'.
The president used part of that speech to address the state of the nation's towns.
National Treasury chief director TV Pillay told MPs the worst-performing municipalities were also owed a R150 billion in unpaid debt, and this had a serious impact on revenues.
A Pari study on Section 139 interventions, which are implemented when there are financial crises in municipalities, shows that the legislation is seldom used, leading to the total collapse of municipalities.
Western Cape Local Government MEC Anton Bredell said that the increased population growth has added pressure on municipal infrastructure.