South Africa\u2019s main municipalities, with the exception of Cape Town, are in a \u201cdeath spiral,\u201d spending way too much money on administrative staff and too little on maintaining and building infrastructure, a deputy finance minister warned. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cSalary bills have grown much faster than inflation, faster than revenue and far faster than service outputs,\u201d Ashor Sarupen told the Cape Town Press Club on Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe result is a state that looks busy, that delivers less, consuming more in salaries and symbolism, while investing less in infrastructure that actually keeps our cities alive.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Management shortcomings are clearly evident in Johannesburg, South Africa\u2019s economic hub, and many of the country\u2019s 256 other municipalities. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Residents have to contend with patchy refuse collection and regular water and electricity outages \u2014 problems that have triggered a number of violent protests. \u00a0 \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Turning the situation around will require urgent and coordinated interventions to ensure officials are held accountable and funding is earmarked for core services, according to Sarupen. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Treasury is trying to support the process by providing conditional grants to towns that ring-fence their utilities and their capital budgets, demonstrate that they are properly managed and charge market-related fees for their services.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIf we can fix our metro utilities, we begin to fix our major towns, and with that, the conditions for economic growth,\u201d the deputy minister said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sarupen is a member of the Democratic Alliance, South Africa\u2019s second-biggest political party and one of 10 that entered a coalition government after last year\u2019s election failed to produce an outright winner. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The alliance isn\u2019t working optimally because the African National Congress, the biggest party, has resisted entering into a formal coalition agreement, and relations are guided by a broad statement of intent that isn\u2019t always adhered to, Sarupen said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
A so-called clearing house that is meant to resolve differences over policy also isn\u2019t functioning properly and has hardly met this year, he added.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A legal framework is needed to make coalition agreements \u201cpublic, transparent and binding,\u201d because there is currently no recourse when they are violated, he said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sarupen announced that he intends standing for election as chairman of the DA\u2019s federal council at a party conference next year, and will decide whether to step down as deputy finance minister if he wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The post is currently held by Helen Zille, who is running to become mayor of Johannesburg in municipal elections that must be held by early 2027, with Sarupen serving as her deputy.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South Africa\u2019s main municipalities are in a \u201cdeath spiral,\u201d spending way too much money on administrative staff and too little on maintaining and building infrastructure, a deputy finance minister warned.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":59,"featured_media":809911,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[2279,1329,1995,3796],"class_list":["post-839452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","tag-cape-town","tag-da","tag-joburg","tag-national-treasury"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/59"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839452"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839452\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":839453,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839452\/revisions\/839453"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/809911"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businesstech.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}