Municipalities must take responsibility for non-compliance: Mkhize
The Chairperson of Parliament's Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Zweli Mkhize, said municipalities must take responsibility for their failure to comply with local government regulations.
This comes after the National Treasury temporarily froze R13.5 billion in local government equitable share transfers for July to 69 municipalities nationwide due to persistent non-compliance.
On Friday, Treasury appeared before Parliament's Joint Oversight Committee to explain its decision to withhold the funds.
"It's about time we drew a line and said the buck stops here. Parliament will no longer tolerate a culture of impunity. We want municipalities to take responsibility for their lack of compliance on this matter and correct the situation," Mkhize said.
He said the primary responsibility for addressing challenges in financial management rests with municipalities.
"We believe the primary responsibility for the challenges in financial management processes lies with the municipalities. We need to help them address these problems. They must take responsibility and correct them," he added.
Treasury said the national government was shifting from an oversight role to active structural intervention to support a sustainable turnaround in local government financial management and service delivery.
It said that, for more than a decade, intergovernmental transfers had masked growing financial weaknesses, with more than half of South Africa's municipalities now in financial distress.
According to Treasury, the main contributors to persistent non-compliance include high levels of irregular, unauthorised, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, as well as increasing non-payment of third parties, including the South African Revenue Service, pension funds, water boards and Eskom.
