Municipalities Must Be Financially Sustainable Amid Instability: Mec

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municipalities must be financially sustainable amid instability mec

The Free State MEC for Cooperative Governance Saki Mokoena says municipalities in the province need to be financially sustainable to render services. In some municipalities, political instability is also a big concern.

Municipalities in the Free State collectively owe more than R10 billion to water boards and power entities. The Mangaung metro municipality is owed R11 billion by residents, businesses and government departments.

It is one of the municipalities that is unable to properly render services. As a result, it has come up with a strategy to encourage people to pay at least half of their municipal debt.

We have already put systems in place that amongst which include incentives schemes where we have asked different layers of society. To cooperate with the government to say if you pay us to start with residents if they pay us 50% of what they owe us. We will definitely give them a clean bill of life and they can continue to pay their current and some are beginning to come forward theres got a timeframe. We are finishing and we are now in our second month out of a year that we are giving them, says Mangaung Metro Municipality Mayor Gregory Nthatisi.

The provincial Cooperative Governance department is conducting oversight visits to all municipalities, to assess their situation and strengthen stability where needed. Mokoena says critical positions in all the municipalities are being filled.