Government underfunding of municipalities places strain on struggling ratepayers
7 March 2022
Underfunded mandates are putting a severe strain on district and local municipalities in the Gauteng Province.
An underfunded mandate occurs when national government gives the local and district municipalities less money as opposed to what they spent on providing a service from their budget so they need to absorb the additional costs which they can't really afford to do.
I recently had a very disturbing telephonic conversation with the MMC for Finance of the West Rand District Municipality, Cllr. Brian Blake who indicated that having an underfunded mandate is not sustainable for the municipality.
They had to spend R104 million on fire services, an underfunded mandate, whilst the role of a district municipality is mainly to assist and capacitate local municipalities to enable them to provide and sustain the provision of services in their area, to promote economic development in the district and to serve as infrastructure development agents.
This has a severe impact on the delivery of basic services and in some instances also critical services provided by the Fire Department.
Not to mention that the West Rand district municipality faces various challenges with regards to the maintenance and upkeep of their own municipal buildings and where budget is lacking due to them funding a fire service for which they are not compensated.
According to a recent reply to my questions tabled in the Gauteng Provincial Legislature (GPL) regarding underfunded mandates the MEC for Finance, Nomantu Nkomo-Ralehoko indicated that for fire services, the West Rand District Municipality has spent R104 million, however they have only received R7 million from National Government, on condition that
See reply here
This is extremely concerning as it means that residents will have a longer waiting time if there are multiple fires that break out in their area putting their lives and homes at risk.
It is unfair that our residents now need to suffer because local and district municipalities need to dig deep into their budgets to ensure that critical services are delivered to our residents.
The DA will take this fight of underfunded mandates up on behalf of our local and district municipalities by using the mechanism in place at provincial and national government.
We will continue to put pressure on the MEC for Finance and the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Lebogang Maile to ensure that all municipalities are able to deliver services unhindered.
Issued by Adriana Randall, DA Gauteng Shadow MEC for Finance and e-Government, 7 March 2022
