According to the latest auditor general (AG) report, the Matjhabeng financial statements reflect a deficit of R1,3 billion.
The municipality’s current liabilities exceeded its current assets by almost R6 billion, and the municipality’s total liabilities exceed its total assets by R1,3 billion.
These shocking figures form part of the AG report for 2020-’21.
According to the AG, Tsakani Maluleke, the municipality owed Eskom in excess of R3,4 billion and Sedibeng Water in excess of R3,6 billion on 30 June 2020.
Based on this, there is significant doubt as to the municipality’s ability to continue as a going concern.
The municipality incurred unauthorised expenditure of almost R1,5 billion due to overspending on the budget, and fruitless and wasteful expenditure of R281 million, mainly due to interest and penalties charged for late payments.
There is also irregular expenditure of R339 million due to non-compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).
The economy in the Lejweleputswa district is strong enough to sustain its local municipalities in general, and Matjhabeng in particular. The problem lies with the mismanagement of funds by incompetent cadre deployed officials and politicians.
So says André Styger, DA councillor in the Lejweleputswa District Council.
“Nothing reveals this better than the auditor general’s 2020-’21 audit of local government, in which the dismal state of municipal finances was laid bare.
“To add insult to injury, the briefing on the National Prosecuting Authority’s investigations into Free State municipalities illustrated how deeply corruption is entrenched in local government, with Matjhabeng once again winning the accolade for having the most pending cases under investigation.”
Styger says it is disappointing that even though everybody knows the lack of consequence management, this is the main reason for the blatant, unabated and defiant looting of taxpayer’s money in Matjhabeng.
“Nothing to date has been done to the guilty involved.”
Not since Matjhabeng’s inception in 2000 has the municipality received a clean audit.
“Even more shocking is that not a single high profile decision maker has been held accountable, not by our law enforcement agencies nor the municipality itself,” says Styger.
The annual municipal financial sustainability index (MFSI) by the local governance ratings agency Ratings Afrika (RA) reports for the year to June 2021, the Free State municipalities were the worst run municipalities in the country and Matjhabeng was the second worst.
The situation has already led to a breakdown in service delivery, which fuelled political unrest in many towns including Matjhabeng, not to mention the catastrophic consequences for faithful ratepayers and businesses.
“The bottom line is that most of Lejweleputswa’s local municipalities, and Matjhabeng in specific, are about to collapse financially – and this will become a certainty if the captains at the helm are not replaced as a matter of urgency,” says Styger.
