MEC Maloyi on stopping of portions of conditional grants of municipalities
In the wake of a letter from National Treasury on stopping of portions of the 2022/2023 conditional grants of nine municipalities in the province due to non-performance, MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, Nono Maloyi has called for stringent disciplinary steps to be taken against officials responsible in these municipalities.
He said most parts of the province have been experiencing service delivery protests especially the provision of water. “These grants are meant to ensure that there is service delivery and upgrading of infrastructure and it is indeed very tragic that municipalities were not able to argue their case to secure their funds”, he said.
Maloyi said it is unfortunate that these municipalities despite having submitted their applications to National Treasury, their applications were not approved as they had not appointed service providers on time for the current financial year projects in order to be able to spend their allocations by end of June 2023.
Maloyi said the department is currently engaging with all municipalities in the province to assist them develop financial recovery plans detailing on how the balance of the allocations will be spent before the end of municipal financial year ending in June 2023.
He explained that both national and provincial departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Municipal Infrastructure Agent (MISA) and the department of
Water and Sanitation started having engagements since October 2022 with the aim to improve the situation and accelerate the implementation of projects by municipalities.
Last month, MEC Maloyi met with all the Mayors and Municipal Managers representatives from Eskom and water utilities to discuss the poor performance of all conditional grants by municipalities. “Municipalities were requested to develop financial recovery plans which the department will closely monitor through technical teams from relevant sectors to ensure that whatever that is remaining as a balance from the 2022/2023 allocations, is spent fully by end of June 2023”, he said.
He said the department will continue to engage with all affected municipalities to advise them to adjust their implementation plans based on the outcome of the stopping process.
Enquiries:
Tumelo Maruping
Cell: 072 901 7653
Dineo Thapelo
Cell: 0722182559
Email: dthapelo@nwpg.gov.za
