Graft ‘causes bad service’

Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana plans to pump R28.9 billion into local municipalities, but some believe this will make very little difference to the plight of under-served ratepayers who are being made scapegoats for poor service delivery, while the real cause is rampant mismanagement and corruption.

Godongwana said 175 of the 257 councils are in financial distress during his budget last week.

According to indicators used by National Treasury, the number of municipalities in financial distress had grown from 86 in the 2013-14 financial year to 175 in the 2019-20 year, with 123 municipalities passing unfunded budgets.

The South African Local Government Association (Salga) said the macroeconomy had been stagnant over the past 12 years but this was due to municipalities’ revenues depending on user-pay principles to remain sustainable.

About 81.31% of their revenue is expected to fund the bulk of recurring municipal expenditure, however, rural-based municipalities have limited revenue base so are unable to generate the projected 19.89% of property rates, said Salga spokesperson Sivuyile Mbambato.

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He said since Eskom directly supplied electricity to such areas, these municipalities were unable to generate a surcharge on electricity to fund other non-billable services. This was an issue which Salga has taken to court to ensure municipalities can provide services in a sustainable manner.

Mbambato said residents needed to pay rates and taxes. “The nature of the services municipalities provide is protected by the Bill of Rights in the Constitution.

“That is the right to access water, and this makes it difficult for municipalities to execute draconian credit control strategies.”

This kind of response, which made no mention of the role of financial mismanagement, was unsurprising, as Salga was an association appointed under the national department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, said Corruption Watch senior researcher Melusi Ncala.

“The majority of South Africans are poor and I believe this is why they have challenges in terms of meeting obligations in terms of payments.

“I don’t think people don’t want to pay. If your priority is to buy bread or maize, you are not going to prioritise things like paying someone to collect your waste,” he added.

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Godongwana stated that revenue collection in municipalities has increased over time, implying there was the likelihood of the high costs of key inputs or poor spending management being the reasons for financial distress.

Ncala said Corruption Watch received more than 30,000 reports on corruption involving municipalities. “Incompetencies, mismanagement and corruption is generally what happens when it comes to municipalities.

“Municipalities appear to not intend to address corruption issues,” he said.

Senior lecturer in public administration at the University of Mpumalanga, Dr John Molepo, held the same view. He said corruption played a fundamental role in poor service delivery.

“Why would a municipality end up deep in a financial crisis?

“It simply means we have people who are not qualified for particular positions or there is a high rate of corruption,” he added.

– rorisangk@citizen.co.za