The municipal manager of Musina, Mr Nathi Tshiwanammbi, said the municipality had a plan to recover more than R40 million owed by consumer debtors, including businesses and government departments. Tshiwanammbi was responding to questions directed at him by members of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) during a public hearing that was held at the Musina Show Grounds last Thursday (23 March).
The purpose of the hearing was to get answers from the accounting officer on various service-delivery issues. The MPAC, chaired by Cllr Nyambeni Makhado, is a committee of council tasked with overseeing how municipal resources are utilised.
Tshiwanammbi told the committee that the municipality implemented its credit-control policy effectively. He said in most instances, the credit control team effectively cut off services until arrangements were made with the debtors to service their debts.
"We are working on a debt-relief programme where consumers who pay a certain portion of their debts within a specified time would be relieved of their debt. We are also part of the provincial debt-management forum that aims to resolve statement disputes between government departments and municipalities. Our experience so far has delivered positive results, and we continue engagements with the debtors with the aim of recovering these debts. We desperately need these monies in order for us to deliver quality and uninterrupted services to our people," he said.
Asked why the municipality had only spent 84% of their capital funding during the 2021/2022 financial year, Tshiwanammbi replied that the underspending had partly been caused by delays in manufacturing of construction materials, such as precast concrete structures and steel structures. "In some instances, there were delays in the supply of material resulting in minimal work done and inconsistent stipends for appointed local labour, hence the challenge of protests by the labour force. Project disruptions by some local community members caused serious delays in some of these projects. To avoid recurrence, we hold monthly progress meetings with service providers to monitor project duration, costs, and physical progress. Besides timeous site inspections performed by the technical personnel of the municipality, we also request service providers to submit a detailed programme of works and further ensure that they report monthly on progress against those submissions," he said.