Three of the five cash-strapped district municipalities in Limpopo are unable to deliver services to communities.

Provincial government director-general Nape Nchabeleng said Mopani, Vhembe and Sekhukhune districts were unable to perform their mandate due to a series of challenges, including unfunded budgets.

"These municipalities have approved an unfunded budget which was not allocated money. It is worrying because one would expect these district municipalities to support local ones," he said.

Nchabeleng said another root cause of poor performance in these municipalities was as a result of lack of leadership on the political and administrative levels. Speaking at a meeting with seven distressed municipalities in Polokwane, Nchabeleng said they were many management posts in municipalities that needed to be filled. "In some of these municipalities there is no municipal manager or chief financial officers and it's a problem because they derail services to communities."

Minister of Cooperative Governance Zweli Mkhize said 15 of the province's 27 municipalities have an unfunded budget.

"You can't adopt a budget that you don't have money for. You must go back and review, and adjust your budgets," he said.

Mkhize said the municipalities create unnecessary debts because they commit themselves to projects they don't have money for.

"We give all the distressed municipalities two months to review their unfunded budget," he said.