Search for the soul of the Waterberg. Its big, its wild, and its only a couple of hours drive from Gauteng. Spectacular thunderstorms lash the Waterberg during the summer months. Here, Vaalwater prepares for another afternoon onslaught. Feature text available. (Photo by Gallo Images/GO!/Jon Minster)
Limpopo’s Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs has intervened in the troubled Waterberg District Municipality.
The department told The Citizen on Friday that the council is facing serious financial woes, which led to the institution failing to collect enough revenue in the 2024-25 financial year.
Limpopo has five districts and 22 local municipalities. Of the five, Waterberg is the only council that is not a water service authority.
Intervention needed in Waterberg District Municipality
On Friday, the department explained that the intervention is intended to prevent the municipality from being placed under administration.
“Placing a municipality under administration is when the municipal council is dissolved, and an administrator is appointed,” said the department’s spokesperson, Tsakani Baloyi.
She added that the intervention at Waterberg District Municipality will not result in the council being dissolved.
“The provincial executive will more often than not impose a recovery plan in an endeavour to make sure it is up and running.”
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Baloyi said the department will monitor the municipality, but there is no timeline yet for it to start delivering results.
She added that R25 million has been spent so far to support the district.
Placing municipalities under administration
Baloyi said placing municipalities under administration has previously helped struggling councils in Limpopo.
“In all municipalities that were placed under administration, there has been improvement as matters that led to intervention were addressed or resolved. However, that does not mean such challenges may not reoccur,” she said.
In the 2022-23 financial year, the auditor-general (AG) found that inadequate oversight and slow implementation of corrective action continued to overshadow the audit outcomes of most municipalities in Limpopo.
Not one municipality received a clean audit, while 18 municipalities received a qualified audit with findings, eight municipalities received qualified audits, and Modimolle-Mookgophong received an adverse audit opinion.
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19% of municipalities in the province could not meet their obligations, while nine municipalities approved unfunded budgets, which contributed to the total of R2.77 billion in unauthorised expenditure.
Across 22 municipalities, fruitless and wasteful expenditure totalling R230.58 million placed additional pressure on their financial health, while amounts owed to Eskom and the water boards total R2.73 billion.
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