AT LEAST half of the 843 municipalities face financial problems and 151, or about one in six, are in full-blown crisis. Chief director in local government finance at the constitutional development and provincial affairs department, Jackie Manche, told delegates at the South African Local Government Association’s annual general congress in Port Elizabeth that the troubled towns and cities cannot meet their current obligations. Business Day reports that most of their operating budgets is being spent on salaries. Municipalities owe creditors a total of about R12,4-billion, including R800-million in taxes owed to the South African Revenue Service. The financial crisis may worsen despite government’s rescue plan to head it off. Launched in 1996, the plan was supposed to have provided constant monitoring of council finances and provincial crisis intervention.