Revenue for the country’s 278 municipalities increased by R27-billion‚ from R306-billion in the 2015 financial year to R333-billion in 2016‚ according to the results of Statistics SA’s Financial Census for Municipalities.

The largest contributor to municipal revenue was grants and subsidies at 30.9%‚ followed by electricity sales at 28.3%‚ property rates at 14.7% and other revenue such as fines‚ licences and permits‚ public contributions and donations accounting for 11%.

Water sales contributed 8.9% to the revenue‚ followed by sewerage and sanitation charges at 3.5% and refuse removal contributed the least at 2.7%.

The results‚ released in Pretoria on Wednesday‚ show that municipalities spent a total of R311-billion of their revenue in 2016‚ with the biggest chunk — 26.3% (R81.8-billion) — spent on employee related costs.

Sivuyile Mbambato‚ of the SA Local Government Association (Salga)‚ said there was nothing out of the norm with the biggest slice of municipal revenue going to employee related costs.

“Local government is labour intensive‚ it needs warm bodies to fulfil its duties. In fact‚ there is a Treasury ration on what percentage of the revenue should be spent on what. The norm for employee related costs is around 30%‚” he said.

Bulk water purchases increased from R15.4-billion to R17.3-billion in 2016‚ increasing water sales revenue from

R26.2-billion in 2015 to R29.6-billion in 2016.

Bulk electricity purchases increased from R62.2-billion in 2015 to R70.3-billion in 2016‚ increasing revenue from electricity sales from R85-billion in 2015 to R94-billion in 2016.

 As at 30 June 2016‚ municipalities owed their lenders‚ suppliers and other creditors a combined R210.7-million‚ 7.5% more than what they owed as of 30 June 2015.