Officials at the Msunduzi Municipality are concerned about the slow progress in turning around the municipality since it was placed under administration and have called on the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) for help.
The municipality has applied to the DBSA for grant funding to help develop and implement key infrastructure programmes that could restore the municipality to financial health and allow it to exit the provincial intervention.
The municipality was placed under administration last year.
Exco members were informed this week that the funding, subject to their approval, was not a loan but a grant, and would carry no implications for the municipality.
A letter to DBSA from municipal manager Madoda Khathide stated the request to DBSA would go a long way towards assisting the municipality to be able to deliver on its mandate of service delivery and also a start and begin the process to come out of administration.
“The Premier (Sihle Zikalala) raised serious concerns with regard to the delays of turning the situation around at the Msunduzi Municipality since the intervention was announced. Our district political champion, MEC for Finance Ravi Pillay, echoed the very same sentiments,” he said.
The municipality highlighted several programmes that have been submitted to the DBSA for funding.
It said the grant would go towards the development and updating of the water and sanitation master plan, the electricity master plan, roads and stormwater master plan and integrated waste management plan.
The funding would also go towards other revenue enhancement strategies, that include meter audits.
The municipality has been under pressure to audit its meters with councillors alleging that there was widespread theft, with thousands of water and electricity meters that show no readings, meaning people were consuming but not paying.
DA councillor Sibongiseni Majola said it was the first time he had heard that DBSA was giving grants.
“We said that if it was not a loan, we would support it, especially since it addressed many of the challenges we have raised, that include verifying our databases, where there is an indication that more than 80 000 people are not in the database.
“The money will also go towards the issue of revenue enhancement and so, based on that we supported the application.”
ACDP councillor Rienus Niemand said dealing with the issue of theft of services was important if the municipality wanted to improve its revenue collection.
“I have said before that more than 20 000 metres in the city show no readings. We are in a situation whereby 60% of the services that we pay for are being stolen. No one can run a business in that manner.”