The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Gauteng is extremely concerned that the Lesedi Local Municipality has once again presented and adopted an unfunded budget for the 2020/2021 financial year.
This is worrying and raises questions as to how the municipality will deliver services to its residents without any funding amid the Covid-19 pandemic.
Furthermore, the municipality has also proposed tariff increases that are not realistic and way above the Consumer Price Inflation Index (CPIX), which measures the annual consumer price inflation.
During a National Treasury meeting in April this year, we warned that there are major cuts on the cards for conditional grants in municipalities.
On the 24th June 2020, National Treasury wrote to the Lesedi Local Municipality regarding their tendency to adopt unfunded budgets and warned that they need to self-correct or face intervention.
See full letter here.
In addition, the DA is concerned that the current Covid-19 pandemic will be used as an excuse to present unfunded budgets.
The DA is calling on the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to liaise with the Lesedi Local Municipality to expedite the implementation of the revised strategy to address municipal finance performance failures, which have been endorsed by both the budget council and budget forum.
Furthermore, a progress report must be submitted as a matter of urgency during the first quarter of the 2020/2021 financial year.