Yet another ANC-led municipality is being run into the ground due to bad financial management.
The Sedibeng District Municipality recently tabled its budget for the 2019/2020 financial year, which will have an operational deficit of R25 million.
This means that this municipality might no longer be financially sustainable due to bad management and poor governance. There is also a lack of internal controls and spiralling employee costs.
In addition, residents will be on the receiving end of poor service delivery.
In order to remedy this the municipality must as a matter of urgency develop a financial recovery plan to demonstrate how the shortfall in operational revenue will be funded.
The recovery plan that is developed needs to have definitive timelines that will indicate by when the operational deficit will be remedied. Furthermore, the plan has to detailed who the accounting officer will be, how much it will cost the municipality and how these funds will be raised.
If this is not done the municipality will not be able to render the very basic of services to its residents.
Overall we have seen District Municipalities in Gauteng failing financially and this needs to be relooked. It has now become clear that it is not financially sustainable have District Municipalities.
I will be tabling questions in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature to ascertain whether the Sedibeng District Municipality will be receiving any financial assistance from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the Gauteng Provincial Treasury.