Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan has announced a number of initiatives to help underperforming municipalities improve revenue collection, record keeping and infrastructure spending.<\/p>\n
A significant number of municipalities fail to collect the money owed to them, while the valuation rolls on which property rates are based are often out of date.<\/p>\n
Many municipalities are also plagued by illegal electricity and water connections, due to ailing infrastructure and poor maintenance.<\/p>\n
The eight metropolitan municipalities alone forfeit R6.5 billion annually through losses in water and electricity.<\/p>\n
Gordhan said if municipalities cut these losses by a mere 4.6%,<\/em> it would already make up for the R300 million reduced municipal allocation stated in his Budget Review.<\/p>\n He said municipalities should spend between 6% and 8% of their operating budgets on maintenance and repairs. In reality, most of them only spend about 3% on these.<\/p>\n Municipalities will receive a subsidy of R335 per household per month to provide free basic services to over 9 million households, but this is significantly higher than the reported 5.3 million who have reportedly received such services.<\/p>\n \u201cThis shortfall must be addressed,\u201d Gordhan said.<\/p>\n Fin24<\/a><\/p>\n Nearly 6,000 water related jobs at SA municipalities are unfilled<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n Eskom wants harsher sentences for electricity thieves<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\nMore on metros in SA<\/h3>\n