OR Tambo District Municipality Executive Mayor, Mesuli Ngqondwana, has revealed that the district municipality and National Treasury have reached an agreement which will see all funds due to the district municipality, which were withheld by Treasury, released to the district council.
Ngqondwana made the revelation during a media briefing held at the district municipality’s offices in Myezo on March 10.
The National Treasury had invoked Section 216 of the constitution, which resulted in withholding of the municipality’s equitable share, as well as conditional grants funding, citing non-compliance to the norms and standards as required by the Municipal Finance Management Act.
The withholding of the funds had a negative impact on the district municipality’s service delivery mandate which stalled some of its projects due to its inability to pay service providers.
“I am glad to highlight that since February, National Treasury and other transferring departments started to release funds that are due to the municipality for service delivery.
“Moreover, on March 8, the Finance Minister sent us a letter notifying us about the lifting of Section 216(2) of the Constitution by committing to release all outstanding equitable shares and conditional grants due to ORTDM,” Ngqondwana said.
“This has been a major achievement for the municipality and its communities as it will ensure that the municipality will execute its functions.
“The lifting of Section 216 will be accompanied by the support and intervention in line with the legislative requirements. The approach had been necessitated by the council request for Section 154 support and assessment of the municipal financial position,” added Ngqondwana.
The district municipality said it had developed a framework to utilise the funds in addressing critical issues such as analysing and prioritising creditors, ensuring organisational efficiency on provision of water and sanitation services, payment of service providers, especially small, micro, and medium enterprises, as well as continuous engagement with communities and accountability.
The funds, in the form of equitable share and conditional grants that were withheld by the National Treasury and are now being released to the district municipality are worth more than R1.5 billion.
