While 151 municipalities are teetering on the brink of collapse, 43 have already collapsed and require urgent intervention to rescue them, National Treasury told Parliament on Wednesday.
Senior officials from Treasury painted a bleak picture when they appeared before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Appropriations.
“This immediately suggests that 98 municipalities plan to spend more than the revenue they collected, which may include the inability to meet financial obligations. There are 175 municipalities that we’ve identified that are in financial distress, and these are municipalities that might be in the brink of a crisis,” he said.
He said the results of the fourth quarter of the 2021/22 financial year reiterated the dismal state of affairs.“In turn, creditors – which include Eskom and water boards – owed just under R90 billion. You’d agree that these numbers don’t paint a good picture for local government.” He said Treasury has also had to pull the plug on the issuing of transversals for smart prepaid meters.