Makhura claims Gauteng is milked by councils

Gauteng Premier David Makhura blamed municipalities for “milking” provincial departments by overcharging them through inaccurate billing systems.

Johannesburg - Gauteng municipalities are “milking” provincial government departments by overcharging them through their inaccurate billing systems, causing the government great concern.

Premier David Makhura revealed this when replying to a question from the EFF’s Patrick Sindane about money owed to Emfuleni Local Municipality by government departments.

Makhura depicted his administration’s departments as victims of inaccurate billing, saying most were being overcharged by municipalities.

The premier also appeared to take a swipe at the key DA-led metros of Joburg and Tshwane. He was recently in a public spat with Joburg mayor Herman Mashaba after the latter issued an ultimatum to the provincial government to pay the city more than R259 million or face a cut in municipal services.

The City of Joburg revealed that it was owed R161m by Gauteng’s departments of Infrastructure Development, R39m by Human Settlements and R59m by Health.

Mashaba issued the ultimatum on September 23 and had given the provincial government 30 working days to settle their debt.

On Tuesday, Makhura was adamant that the “problem of inaccurate billing remains a matter of great concern to residents, businesses and government departments”.

“There are billing irregularities at schools, clinics and hospitals, and this has created protracted disputes and overcharging of the departments of Education and Health.

“Recently, we drew the attention of the City of Joburg to the fact that the Department of Health had a credit of more than R200m sitting in the city’s accounts, while the leadership of the municipality went public claiming the city was owed,” he said.

According to Makhura, his government had already revealed a plan in September last year to settle all outstanding debts to municipalities within two years.

He said that in November last year, he told the legislature that the money owed to municipalities by government departments stood at R892m by September 2015, but said those amounts had since been reduced to R458m.

Makhura said the improvement in payment was due to his government’s decision to set up a debt management committee made up of the Gauteng treasury and Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

“The committee meets on a monthly basis with each municipality and the government departments to validate outstanding accounts and payments dates, then reaches an agreement on how the outstanding amount will be paid to the municipalities.

“In terms of direct oversight and intervention, the debt-management committee has from the 2014/2015 financial year to the 2015/2016 year facilitated payments totalling more than R2 billion for municipal rates and services,” Makhura said.

He said government departments owed Emfuleni Municipality an amount of R46m by the end of September, compared with R85m for the same period last year.

But the premier struggled to answer questions about the seizure of Emfuleni movable property due to their inability to pay their creditors on time.

The ever-growing litigation cases against the municipality led to mayor Simon Mofokeng and the speaker of the council spending R120 000 a month to rent vehicles.

baldwin.ndaba@inl.co.za

The Star