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. 

Gauteng alone is owed nearly R1 billion in verified debt which explains why areas such as Diepsloot and Alexander are in disarray without access to water and burgeoning crime rates. 

The DA-run Western Cape is owed the least of any of the provinces, and we will continue to make sure that public service delivery is not compromised by state maladministration.

Perhaps ANC-run municipalities should take a leaf out of the DA book: when the DA took over the mayorship of Cape Town and discovered the massive debt owed for municipal services by government departments, we ensured that the problem was solved and in turn those funds were used to turn Cape Town into the award-wining metro we recognise today.

South Africans across the country have an opportunity to vote in DA governments across the country for better municipal management that ensures that public funds are used for public good.

Issued by Dianne Kohler Barnard, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Public Works, 25 May 2016