QAKA, SOUTH AFRICA - FEBRUARY 12: A view of the main road and landscape on February 12, 2024, in Qaka, a rural village close to Port St Johns in Eastern in Cape Province, South Africa. Most of the residents in the village live on social grants and often the unemployment rate is 80-90 % in these rural villages. Thirty years of democracy in South Africa has brought small changes to rural people in South Africa, but the majority party African National Congress (ANC) relies on the rural and poor masses for votes every election, a time when promises of a better future is again communicated to the people, and sometimes they receive free food parcels and t-shirts. An increasing number of South Africans are struggling to eat properly due to extreme poverty, unemployment, high inflation. More and more children are malnourished and stunted and turn up in hospitals, especially in Eastern Cape Province and in many townships around South Africas main cities. (Photo by Per-Anders Pettersson/Getty Images)
The United Democratic Movement (UDM) in the Eastern Cape said it is disturbed by revelations that seven municipalities in the province are on the verge of financial collapse.
This comes after a presentation by the province’s treasury to parliamentarians revealed that these municipalities will not survive another month without government assistance.
These municipalities are: Makana, Sundays River Valley, Amathole, Raymond Mhlaba, Amahlathi, Walter Sisulu and King Sabata Dalindyebo.
In a statement on Friday, the UDM provincial secretary, Mbulelo Bobotyane, blamed poor governance by the ANC for the state of the municipalities.
“Under ANC governance, 33 out of 39 municipalities are distressed, with only six receiving clean audits in the 2023/24 financial year.
“This is an unforgivable betrayal of the people,” he said.
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‘Empty plans and recycled rhetoric’
He said “chronic incompetence” is the reason the Eastern Cape faces problems such as unemployment, poverty and poor infrastructure.
“The UDM in the Eastern Cape holds Premier Oscar Mabuyane and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Zolile Williams politically responsible for the collapse of governance in the province.
“For years, they have been warned about the dire state of municipalities, but responded with empty plans and recycled rhetoric,” he said.
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Revenue collection
Bobotyane said the parliamentary presentation also revealed that government departments contributed to the poor revenue collection in the municipalities in the Eastern Cape.
“It is shocking and unacceptable that national and provincial government departments owe municipalities more than R208 million in unpaid rates and service charges.
“These are not private companies or delinquent ratepayers. They are organs of the same state that lectures ordinary citizens about paying their municipal accounts.
“This failure by the state to pay what it owes is an act of internal sabotage,” he said.
The UDM now wants the government to step in and deploy an intervention team to the seven municipalities on the brink of collapse, with powers to stabilise finances.
Eastern Cape municipalities warned
Meanwhile, in a statement on Thursday, the joint parliamentary oversight delegation issued a stern warning to Eastern Cape municipalities, stating that repeated failures in governance, financial accountability and service delivery will no longer be tolerated.
The chairperson of the portfolio committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Zweli Mkhize, called for corrective action.
“The oversight engagements had exposed a troubling pattern of neglect, mismanagement and weak accountability that continues to erode public trust.
“Progress must be visible, not theoretical. We have heard the same explanations for years, yet the conditions in communities remain unchanged,” he said.
Mkhize said the municipalities should not see oversight as punishment, but as a way to fix what is broken.
“What is important for us is to appreciate that progress must be visible, that actions must be standardised and guided by the requirements we set, and that you as municipal leadership must be seen to be taking responsibility,” he said.
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