Public Works owes a staggering R63million to struggling KZN municipalities
22 August 2019
A parliamentary reply to questions posed by the DA has revealed that KwaZulu-Natal’s Department of Public Works owes a staggering R63million to 29 of the province’s municipalities.
According to the July 2019 response from KZN Public Works MEC, Peggy Nkonyeni, (view here) more than R46million of the amount has been outstanding for over 150 days.
The affected municipalities listed include the embattled Mooi-Mpofana municipality which owes ESKOM millions of rands, and the eThekwini metro, where municipal services to schools have been cut in the past as a result of this debacle.
The DA regards it as inconceivable that, while so many of KZN’s municipalities are struggling to literally keep the lights on, the biggest culprit when it comes to paying the bill on time is a provincial department. The situation in many of our municipalities is so dire, that every rand of outstanding debt could be the difference between providing services, or not and even paying salaries or not.
The DA in KwaZulu-Natal will take this fight to KZN Public Works MEC, Peggy Nkonyeni. We expect that she and her Department take immediate steps to address the matter of monies owed to municipalities. The provincial government cannot be one of the main contributors to our municipalities’ woes.
It is also unacceptable that while residents and businesses are expected to always pay their utilities and rates on time – or face having their services cut – that KZN’s ANC-led government is allowed to have its debt spiral out of control without any action being taken. This is a slap in the face to every law-abiding citizen in our province.
The DA will also appeal to KZN CoGTA MEC, Sipho Hlomuka, as the person responsible for the well-being and functionality of KZN’s municipalities, to intervene and demand payment of this debt. While the DA agrees that municipal services to schools and hospitals should continue, we urge municipalities to suspend services to office blocks owed by the Department of Public Works, as they would with any other ratepayer.
Ultimately, it is not the MECs or the Premier or any of those in positions of power that are affected. Instead, it is the ordinary people of KZN who are not receiving basic services due to failing municipalities that suffer.
Issued by Martin Meyer, DA KZN Spokesperson on Public Works, 22 August 2019
