The National Treasury has gazetted the details of municipalities whose 2006/07 municipal infrastructure grant allocations have been stopped — because of non-compliance with the 2006 Division of Revenue Act. It amounts to R503-million.
According to the South African Local Government Research Centre — headed by Clive Keegan — the Act provides for remedial measures in terms of which the Treasury may stop an allocation to a municipality on the grounds of persistent and material non-compliance with the provisions of the Act.
The main reason for the funds being stopped is “significant under-expenditure”, Keegan reported.
The biggest offender in the Eastern Cape was the OR Tambo municipality, which had an allocation of just short of R300-million, but R111-million was stopped.
Also an offender was the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality — including Port Elizabeth, Uitenhage and Despatch — which had an allocation of R179-million and a disaster adjustment allocation of a further R106-million, but funds of R80-million were stopped.
Stopped funds to the Eastern Cape amounted to R216-million, including R4,5-million to Kouga municipality, R773 000 to Koukamma, R9,9-million to Mbhashe, R4,3-million to Emalahleni, R514 000 to Sakhisizwe, R3-million to Elundini and R1,6-million to Maletswai.
Free State and Gauteng
Free State municipalities’ allocation was reduced by R56-million from R83,7-million to just R27,4-million.
In Gauteng, the Ekurhuleni metro municipality had its allocation reduced from R256-million to R236-million, or a reduction of R20-million. The Johannesburg metro had its allocation reduced by R10-million from R284,5-million to R274,5-million, and the Emfuleni municipality had its allocation reduced by R19,2-million from R57-million to R37,7-million.
This was a reduction of nearly R40-million in the province.
KwaZulu-Natal
In KwaZulu-Natal, smaller amounts were involved. At uMuziwabantu, the allocation dropped from R3,9-million to just more than R2-million — or by R1,8-million. At Hibiscus Coast, it dropped from R8,3-million by R474 000 to R7,8-million; at Richmond, the figure dropped from R3,2-million to R1,2-million.
At Msinga municipality, it dropped from R6,8-million to a revised allocation of R4,7-million. In Umvoti, the allocation dropped from R3,7-million to a revised allocation of just R547 000.
At Abaqulusi, the allocation was R6,4-million and this dropped to just R3-million. At Mbonambi, the allocation dropped from R3,6-million to just more than R3-million. At Ndwedwe, the allocation dropped by more than half from just more than R6-million to R1,97-million, and at Maphumulo it dropped from R4,6-million to R3,9-million.
This was a drop of about R18-million for the province.
Mpumalanga and Limpopo
In Limpopo, R28,5-million was stopped in the Vhembe district municipality, reducing its allocation from R124-million to just R95,9-million. At Molemole, the allocation was dropped from R5,8-million to just R2,6-million. At Polokwane, it dropped from R77,7-million to R50,9-million.
This was a drop of R58,5-million for municipalities in that province.
In Mpumalanga, R11,9-million was stopped from going to the Albert Luthuli municipality. Its original allocation was R25,7-million and the revised allocation was R13,8-million. At Lekwa, the allocation was dropped from R12,8-million to R9,6-million.
At Steve Tshwete, the allocation dropped from R10,6-million to R7,5-million. At Dr JS Moroka, the allocation dropped from R36,5-million to R33-million. At Mbombela, the allocation was reduced from R65-million to R56,9-million, while at Nkomazi the allocation dropped from R44,6-million to R17,9-million.
For the province of Mpumalanga the stopped funds amounted to R55-million.
Northern Cape and North West
Meanwhile, in the Northern Cape an allocation of R22,4-million, including a disaster adjustment allocation, was reduced by R900 000 to R21,5-million for Namakwa district council. At Siyancuma, the allocation was reduced from R3,9-million to R902 000. At !Kai! Garib, the allocation was reduced from R4,1-million to R2,1-million and at Siyanda district municipality the allocation was reduced from R5,8-million to R3,37-million.
At Magareng the allocation was reduced from R2,7-million to R1-million.
The allocation in the Northern Cape was reduced in these municipalities by R12,19-million.
In North West, an allocation of R69-million was reduced by R35,8-million to R33,1-million, and at Tswaing the reduction was from R6,4-million to R3,3-million. This was a nearly R39-million reduction in the province. — I-Net Bridge