BREAKING NEWS: Madibeng Local Municipality loses R146 million in Conditional Grant Funding – DA

BRITS – The Democratic Alliance in the Madibeng Local Municipality denounces the fact that the municipality forfeits R146 million of its conditional grant funding due to its inability to effectively spend this grant funding to improve infrastructure development and maintenance and service delivery.

Municipalities receive conditional grant funding from National Treasury RSA to assist with infrastructure development. Municipalities that are unable to effectively spend conditional grant funding forfeit this funding to Treasury with a result of reduced funding made available in the next financial year. This negatively affects the municipality’s ability to improve service delivery in sanitation, water, roads and electricity services.

Madibeng’s infrastructure is near collapse. Sewerage systems are dysfunctional, roads are riddled with potholes, streetlights are broken, pump stations cannot meet demand and electricity substations are aged and fail regularly. This R146 million could have made a significant impact towards improving Madibeng’s infrastructure development and maintenance programmes which would ultimately ensure better service delivery.

The ANC-led Madibeng municipality lacks the political will and the capacity to utilise funding for infrastructure maintenance and development. Quite frankly, the ANC has given up on governing and they are just biding time until they are kicked out of office.

The DA in Madibeng will write to the Municipal Manager, James Mashigo, requesting that he tables a report at the next Council meeting on the reasons why the municipality was unable to spend its conditional grant funding and what measures will be put in place to limit future reductions in conditional grant funding. We also want to know what steps he has taken to address skills shortage and improve capacity in the municipality to fully utilise the funding for its intended purposes.