By Staff Reporter
QWAQWA – Maluti-A-phofung local municipality has received a vote of acknowledgement from the Free State Treasury for the noticeable strides it has made in turning around its financial worries.
This was disclosed by Free State MEC for Treasury Gadija Brown during the debate of her budget speech on Tuesday.
“Some salient achievements from municipalities; Maluti-A-Phofung has submitted all AFS statements after a three year- backlog. Moreover Maluti-A-Phofung has for the first time paid its current account to Eskom.”
She said municipalities are reliant on their own revenue collection for sustainability.
“National Government provides financial support through the Division of Revenue Act (DoRA). In the 2022 DoRA, municipalities receive approximately 10 percent of allocations for Councilors and Free Basic Services on Water and Electricity.
“The National Treasury recommends municipalities must collect own revenue at 95 percent. However, the pandemic and the economic conditions had resulted in municipality’s own revenues regressing and most municipalities are in financial distress or crisis.”
Maluti-A-Phofung local municipality Executive Mayor Gilbert Tjhopo Mokotso has attributed the success to their robust campaign of clamping down on illegal electricity connections while also going after defaulting businesses; this led to the collection of R134-million in three months.
“It gives us so much pleasure to be able to continue to service this debt, especially being able to pay our current account as per our agreements with Eskom,” Mokotso disclosed.
Mokotso was adamant that through this operation they will be able to maintain their good financial health.
“With our revenue collection campaign still in full operation, we should be able to deal with this debt accordingly. We call on all electricity users, including government departments and state entities, to play their meaningful part and pay for their consumption,” Mokotso urged.
The clamp down campaign which saw disconnections of electricity at non-compliant businesses, gave the municipality a revenue boost after most businesses came forward to pay.
Well done to Mr Mokotso and the entire team for job well done, This is exactly what this municipality needs a leader who has a backbone, who can stand for his people and make a difference. It’s hardly 6 months in the role and already he’s presence is felt Thank you so much ntate.
Well done MAP for saving peoples lifes after a long time 🤲🤲
Well done MAP for saving peoples lifes after a long time 🤲🤲