A staggering R425 million – that’s the amount of money that both the Gauteng government and national government owe the City of Tshwane for municipal services such as water and electricity as of September 21.
This was disclosed in a 12-page document compiled by mayor Randall Williams and submitted to the new Gauteng MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, eGovernment and Research and Development, Mzi Khumalo.
The document, which the Pretoria News has seen, was put together as part of responses to queries about the City’s finances raised by Khumalo’s predecessor, Lebogang Maile.
On October 3, Maile enquired about the City’s finances in the wake of reports that the City failed to pay workers’ salaries on time, and was in financial trouble with Eskom.
He had written to Williams, asking him to clarify claims that the City was facing serious financial problems.
In the document dated October 12, Williams expressed surprise at the request, “considering that, as part of the City’s obligation in accordance with Section 71 of the Municipal Finance Management Act, it must file a monthly report on the finances of the City to the Provincial Treasury, which report is presented to the Provincial Legislature, of whom the MEC is obviously an important member”.
Williams shot down claims that the City was “in serious financial difficulties”.
He, however, highlighted that the impact on the City’s finances was as a result of Maile’s “unlawful action, as confirmed by the Constitutional Court, in previously placing the City under administration”.
“The financial well-being of the City was destroyed as a result thereof and it is only due to the unyielding efforts of the current administration that the City is not in serious financial problems,” he said.
According to him, Maile’s request for information and suggestion that the City was in serious financial circumstances was inappropriate.
“To your knowledge and notwithstanding all attempts by the City to cure such indebtedness, both the Gauteng Province, of which you are a(n) MEC, as well as the national government, is indebted to Tshwane in the amount of approximately R425 027 403 as of September 21,” he said.
He said the unpaid debts by the governments to the municipality placed an undue burden on Tshwane’s cash-flow position.
Regarding late payments of salaries, Williams said: “I can categorically state that all employees received their salaries in the month of September and the City at all times had the funds for the payment of such salaries.”
Maile had also expressed concerns regarding the City’s debt of R1.6 billion to Eskom.
Williams said Maile was aware of a major dispute with Eskom on their demand that they “be paid within 15 days of the issuing of their invoice to the City, which invoice is issued on the first of the month”.
“At such time, the consumers in the City have not yet paid or are obligated to pay their accounts to the City, which are only payable after 30 days or at the end of the month,” he said.
On the fuel shortage concerns, which affected municipal fleet operations recently, Williams said the availability of diesel in South Africa had become a critical issue, “we understand, in many respects, related to the ongoing war in Ukraine and the upcoming winter in Europe”.
“Due to this scarcity of diesel the service providers were not delivering the full complement of diesel to all of our depots as required.
“The net effect hereof was that certain of our fuel depots did experience a diesel shortage resulting therein that vehicles could not be refuelled at those depots,” he said.
He added that all service providers had been fully paid for the fuel that was delivered.
Pretoria News