Political infighting due to coalitions, Eskom debt and financial irregularities at Western Cape municipalities are some of the issues under the spotlight at the South African Local Government Association’s (Salga) annual Provincial Members Assembly in Mossel Bay.
Twenty-six of the 30 municipalities in the province have been represented.
Salga President, Bheki Stofile, says most municipalities in the Western Cape have good financial audits and performance systems.
“The municipalities in the Western Cape must learn from what happened in Drakenstein, Winelands, introduction of performance systems to assess the performance of individual councillors with an improvement of service. It’s a very good principal that Drakenstein has approved. I wish all of us can learn from it and build on its weaknesses and grow it,” says Stofile.
The Western Cape representative for the Salga National Executive Committee, Thami Ngubane, says there are, however, challenges such as Eskom’s debt, mainly due to households struggling to pay their utilities bills.
“At times, you find that some of them don’t have the abilities to pay the municipalities. Salga is having a conversation with the national government in terms of how do we respond to this because the economy is not going well. Many people are unemployed. So, they don’t have money in their pockets. So, that manifests itself through the Eskom debt,” says Ngubane.
Tanya Krause
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