The North West Treasury says it will take at least five years to resolve financial challenges at some of the troubled municipalities across the province.
The North West Government in April, placed eight municipalities under mandatory intervention in line with section 139 (5) (a) and (c) of the Constitution and section 139 of the Municipal Finance Management Act, with the hope that it will succeed where other plans have failed.
The municipalities in question are Mahikeng, Naledi, Madibeng, Kgetlengrivier, Ramotshere Moiloa, Tswaing, Ditsobotla local municipalities, and the Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District Municipality.
But it seems the intervention plan is yet to yield any results at the Ditsobotla Local Municipality, where the workers have not received their salaries for the past two months.
The Lichtenburg-based municipality owes creditors around R7 billion, and the Department’s Chief Director responsible for the municipality’s finances, Linda Nengovhela, said there is a need to reach agreements with creditors at the municipality.
“The financial recovery plan has four pillars, and in those pillars, we believe that you cannot implement the entire recovery plan in one day. It is a process, some of the things that were found by the intervention team like the case of Ditsobotla local municipality can take almost five years before we could even begin to see changes. So it is crafted in such a way that it is phase approached.
“The first phase is all about the rescue plan. It means that lets stabilise the finances now. We know that they have over-committed, and are unable to pay their debts. So we have to come up with plans that will assist the municipality to reduce its expenditure and make a payment arrangement with your creditors to pay them over a year. So we believe that means the municipality must at least approve a funded budget.
“The Ditsobotla local municipality owes its creditors R7 billion, and only it relies on the equitable share as its revenue to fund its operations. So the intervention team has been engaging with all the stakeholders involved and affected by the problem in Ditsobotla.
“They first started with the workers, just to get an understanding as to what the issues are, and at least for now we can confirm that some of the employees are cooperating,” Nengovhela said.
However, the South African Municipal Union’s (SAMWU) regional secretary, Vuyisile Jikimlambo claimed the union was left in the dark about the issue of unpaid salaries.
“It has been two months now, and the only thing that we got was a notification letter from the acting municipal manager to the workers. It doesn’t even state a date that the workers can expect to receive their salaries.
“The municipality is currently under mandatory intervention, but whoever is sent here in this intervention is not talking to us. We don’t know who they are or even the office that they occupy in the municipality, and they are supposed to be specialists. So we are just in the dark, but workers are expected to report for duty,” said Jikimlambo.
