KZN municipal finance rot is linked to ANC corruption: DA

DA KZN Leader Zwakele Mncwango. Picture: Gcina Ndwalane / African News Agency (ANA)

DA KZN Leader Zwakele Mncwango. Picture: Gcina Ndwalane / African News Agency (ANA)

Published Aug 11, 2020

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Durban - The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal has slammed the province’s year-on-year deterioration of municipal finances, party leader Zwakele Mncwango said on Tuesday.

Mncwango was reacting to the latest Municipal Financial Sustainability Index (MFSI) by Ratings Afrika which indicated that the financial sustainability in KZN municipalities was gradually getting worse. The findings are based on the fiscal year ending June 2019.

“KZN municipalities degraded from 52/100 in 2015 to 41/100 in 2019. With the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, this is expected to get worse. While we are disappointed we are not surprised by these reports. The ANC has been instrumental in ensuring that our municipalities drown in debt and, at this rate, we will need resolute strategies to keep us afloat,” Mncwango said in a statement.

He said at the root of all this was corruption in these ANC-run municipalities.

“Until we can root out corruption things are only going to get worse. The ANC leadership has shown little to no intention to deal with corruption. Instead, they are protecting their corrupt comrades to keep them in power at the expense of the ratepayers. We never see corrupt comrades getting arrested and convicted for their crimes. We have pending cases and inquiries which are costing us millions but eventually, the media forgets about these cases and so does the Judiciary,” he said.

He said the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) departments in municipalities are bombarded with cases of corruption on a daily basis but the outcomes were not visible.

The ANC in KZN said it was wrong for the DA to act as if the party was not dealing with corruption.

Spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela said it was advisable to differentiate between individuals employed in state entities and the ANC as an organisation.

“The ANC has always identified the issue of corruption in municipalities and that is dealt with. Recently we had Social Development officials suspended following allegations of corruption. It is the MEC and ANC-led government that instituted the investigation and took action against the suspects. There are many other instances where the ANC government has taken action against wrongdoers. We, therefore, don’t understand where the DA is coming from with these mischievous utterances,” Ntombela said.

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