Fourteen out of 61 KZN municipalities are in financial distress, while another 15 reported negative cash positions.
|||Fourteen out of 61 KwaZulu-Natal municipalities are in financial distress, while another 15 have reported negative cash positions. A further three failed to report their cash positions or reported numbers that were “obviously inaccurate”.
This is according to the Treasury report that looked at the state of municipalities as of October 10 last year. It was produced by Jan Hattingh, chief director of local government budget analysis at the Treasury, and sought to identify areas of risk in local government finances.
Out of 278 municipalities countrywide, 66 were in financial distress with 37 others heading in the same direction.
In the case of KwaZulu-Natal, the report named as being in distress: uMziwabantu in Harding, uMngeni in Howick, Indaka, outside Estcourt, eNdumeni in Dundee, eDumbe in Paulpietersburg, uPhongolo, Nongoma, uMhlabuyalinga on the far northern KZN, Mtubatuba, uMlalazi in Eshowe, uMzimkhulu, Ugu in Greater Port Shepstone and uMkhanyakude around Hluhluwe.
The report suggested that risks were higher in municipalities that had no full-time municipal managers or chief financial officers. It also raised concerns over the practice of “pushing out” competent officials to enable mayors to deploy candidates for “patronage or political reasons”. - The Mercury