Central SA
Debt weighs heavily on service delivery: Mangaung Mayor─── KEKELETSO MOSEBETSI 10:32 Tue, 14 Feb 2023
Mangaung Metro Mayor, Mxolisi Siyonzana, says that the municipality has not been able to deliver mandated services to residents due to overwhelming debts of the previous administration.
While delivering ANC Youth League Peter Mokaba Memorial Lecture in the Free State last month, ANC secretary general, Fikile Mbalula, criticized Siyonzana and accused him of “sleeping on the job.”
This was as a result of continued maladministration and failure to provide services in the metro.
Meanwhile, speaking at a special council meeting held at the metro headquarters on Monday, 13 February 2023, Siyonzana said that in 2019 the council was placed under a compulsory financial recovery plan, and a team of experts (including those from the national government) were deployed to intervene in Mangaung.
Four months after the new administration was elected in the council, the metro was placed under administration.
ALSO READ: Mbalula lashes out at Mangaung mayor
“There are three stages: You’ve got a rescue stage, you’ve got a stability stage, and you’ve got a stage where you sustain. This council is servicing five loans which were not taken by us. Those who took those five loans out there, they are seen as people who performed, said Siyonzana.
During an interview with national news channel eNCA, Siyonzana revealed that a portion of R500 million meant for service delivery was forfeited. That was the second time the Metro forfeited millions of rands meant for essential services desperately needed by residents, who are often irate with the municipality over the alleged lack of key services.
ALSO READ: Mangaung Metro forfeited government grant twice
In 2020, the National Treasury is said to have withheld grant funding of R429 million due to underspending. The Auditor-General (AG), Tsakani Maluleke, said in her report that Treasury’s action was a result of the delays by the Metro in completing grant-funded projects.
ALSO READ: Cash-strapped Mangaung forfeited over R400m
During President Cyril Ramaphosa’s presidential Imbizo held in Mangaung last year, the National Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, described the Metro as “messed up.”.
ALSO READ: “Mangaung is messed up” - Dlamini-Zuma
OFM News recently reported that Siyonza was recently recalled by the ANC Provincial Executive Committee (PEC), together with Premier Sisi Ntombela - who has since failed to make the cut of the newly elected PEC members - after losing the position of ANC provincial chairperson during the provincial elective conference in January 2023.
