The South African Local Government Association (Salga) expects the country’s number one‚ President Jacob Zuma‚ to focus on the plan to deal with the escalating debt owed to municipalities‚ which is around R100 billion.

In the much-anticipated State of the Nation address due later on Thursday‚ Salga wants the president to also give a comprehensive report on the progress made through the Back to Basics programme for Local Government. During a high-level summit held in September 2014‚ one of the outcomes was the Back to Basics programme‚ which is based in building a responsive‚ caring and accountable local government sector.

Since then‚ a lot has been done to improve the capacity of South Africa’s municipalities to speed up service delivery‚ according to Tahir Sema‚ Salga’s head of communications.

Sema said municipalities themselves owe Eskom more than R10 billion in outstanding payments and water boards more than R2 billion.

“It is important that government departments‚ businesses and households come to the party and pay what is due to the municipalities. Municipalities need to be protected and supported against the harsh economic challenges facing the country. The economic crunch has seen local government fiscal budget allocation shrink substantially‚” Sema said.

He said Salga also welcomed a ground-breaking decision that was reached earlier on Thursday between Salga‚ the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs department (Cogta) and National Energy Regulator (Nersa) where Eskom and municipalities agreed to sign service delivery agreements for the sustainable delivery of electricity.

- Meanwhile‚ Agency for New Agenda president Tshidiso Mokhoanatse in partnership with the Alliance for Change – a broad civic forum of concerned South Africans – have turned to the courts in a bid to dissolve unaccountable local municipalities. They will be at the High Court in Pretoria on Friday (tomorrow)‚ targeting the Tshwane‚ Madibeng‚ Moretele‚ Matlosana and Tlokwe municipalities.

This comes as the Auditor-General’s office recently revealed that more than R27 billion cannot be accounted for by national and provincial government departments.