An item relating to the municipality’s financial state was tabled before council during the first council meeting of the new year. The virtual special meeting took place on 27 January. Among other things, the council heard that the impact of Covid-19 on the municipality was huge. The percentage of residents who paid for service dropped from 52.65 per cent in March 2020 to 36.44 per cent the following month, when the national lockdown level 5 was announced. Meanwhile, the municipality’s revenue for the previous six months was R909,499 million, compared to the R915,260 million Merafong could realistically expect to collect. The municipality also only received R32.4 million instead of R64 million of the national government’s equitable share because the previous year’s rollover items were not approved. The municipality’s total capital expenditure for the six months under review was R49,149 million, only 28.15 per cent of the total budget. Due to poor performance the previous year, the municipality had to pay R94,664 million back to National Treasury. At the end of the time under review, the municipality had a positive cash flow balance of R110,609 compared to the projected cash flow of R386,960 at mid-year. The positive cashflow was the result of Merafong not spending all its conditional grants. The municipality’s total expenditure for salaries for the six months under review was R168,406 million, which was 45.84 per cent of the total budget of R367,438 million. During the six months under review, the municipality lost 31 employees. 
