Service delivery: Department’s R3.6 billion debt exacerbates the poor’s suffering
25 May 2016
The Department of Public Works’s (DPW) entity- the Property Management Trading Entity (PMTE)- revealed in their presentation before the Portfolio Committee on Public Works that municipalities are owed R3.6 billion in verified debt pertaining to rates, taxes and services. Ultimately the monies owed disempower municipalities from delivering services to the some of the poorest communities in the country.
As such I will be urging the Minister of Public Works, Thulas Nxesi, to table a remedial plan before the Portfolio Committee on how he plans to resolve the billions owed to municipalities by his department. We cannot allow the DPW to neglect its financial obligations as this limits the ability of municipalities to provide basic services and dignity to poor communities.
Even more egregious is that the Auditor-General (A-G) claims that the total government debt is as high as R5.2 billion, a discrepancy that is enormously problematic, as these are vast sums of outstanding property taxes and services provided that have gone unpaid.
Mr Nxesi has to explain why such vast amounts have gone unpaid for extended periods and must also satisfy Parliament that no more debt will be inccrued by his department.