A troubled Mafube municipality in the Free State recently announced, once again, that it will not be able to pay salaries for the next three months.
The news is distressing to employees who now have to face a bleak Christmas and New Year in these tough economic times. The truth, however, is that this is yet another consequence of bad governance and a lack of accountability in our country.
The municipality’s internal memo to staff blamed the situation on a court order which granted the attachment of funds in all accounts by the Municipal Workers Retirement Fund.
However, in all its communication the administration fails to account for the reasons behind the court’s decision. As at April 30, the municipality had not been making mandatory contributions to the Municipal Workers’ Retirement Fund for 76 months.
It had also failed to make contributions to the Municipal Councillors Pension Fund for 46 months. Today, we reveal that its revenue collection problem is so entrenched that its councillors owed about R500,000 in rates last year.
According to its October 2022 financial statements, 16 councillors had not been paying their consumer accounts, some for as long as nine months at the time of reporting.Others had debt dating back to the previous year.
While the amounts owed will not turn the tide of recovery, the level and consistency of their debt demonstrates a lack of commitment by its leaders to be part of the solution.
The Auditor-general’s report of last year paints a picture of a municipality that is over-indebted, that has no revenue collection strategy in place, one where there are no consequences for fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
While the municipality was placed under provincial administration a year ago, there is little evidence publicly available to suggest that the intervention of a higher government structure is yielding results.
However, we cannot analyse this situation outside of the continuous collapse of governance in that municipality and many others across the country, which operate under similar conditions. Local governance in our country is broken and the people in charge of it haven’t a clue what to do.
SOWETAN | SA's local governance is broken
Image: Thulani Mbele
A troubled Mafube municipality in the Free State recently announced, once again, that it will not be able to pay salaries for the next three months.
The news is distressing to employees who now have to face a bleak Christmas and New Year in these tough economic times. The truth, however, is that this is yet another consequence of bad governance and a lack of accountability in our country.
The municipality’s internal memo to staff blamed the situation on a court order which granted the attachment of funds in all accounts by the Municipal Workers Retirement Fund.
However, in all its communication the administration fails to account for the reasons behind the court’s decision. As at April 30, the municipality had not been making mandatory contributions to the Municipal Workers’ Retirement Fund for 76 months.
It had also failed to make contributions to the Municipal Councillors Pension Fund for 46 months. Today, we reveal that its revenue collection problem is so entrenched that its councillors owed about R500,000 in rates last year.
According to its October 2022 financial statements, 16 councillors had not been paying their consumer accounts, some for as long as nine months at the time of reporting.Others had debt dating back to the previous year.
While the amounts owed will not turn the tide of recovery, the level and consistency of their debt demonstrates a lack of commitment by its leaders to be part of the solution.
The Auditor-general’s report of last year paints a picture of a municipality that is over-indebted, that has no revenue collection strategy in place, one where there are no consequences for fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
While the municipality was placed under provincial administration a year ago, there is little evidence publicly available to suggest that the intervention of a higher government structure is yielding results.
However, we cannot analyse this situation outside of the continuous collapse of governance in that municipality and many others across the country, which operate under similar conditions. Local governance in our country is broken and the people in charge of it haven’t a clue what to do.
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