The Democratic Alliance (DA) calls on the Mpumalanga government to urgently intervene and help solve the water loss crisis in Msukaligwa Local Municipality. A damning report revealed that they lost 76% of their water annually attributed to leakages and dilapidated infrastructure.
According to the 2020/21 Auditor General’s Report water distribution losses in the municipality rose to 76% of the total water purchased from 68% in the previous financial year, far above the national norm of 15-30%.
The Auditor General continued by pointing out that the following factors contributed to the municipality’s higher water losses:
- old and dilapidated infrastructure;
- water leaks and continuous pipe breaks;
- insufficient staff components and a shortage of working vehicles.
Consequently, the municipality’s debt to external creditors, including electricity and water creditors, has escalated to R1.424 billion with little intervention from the provincial government. Equally concerning is the fact that, because of this outstanding debt, the municipality incurred R73.2 million in wasteful expenditure from interest and penalties charged by its suppliers, as noted in the 2020/21 Auditor General’s Report.
The AG Report also revealed that part of the cash flow problem in this municipality stems from inadequate revenue generation strategies, inadequate billing systems, and, of course, high water distribution losses of course. The sum of these issues resulted in the municipality being owed just over R1 billion for services provided, as revealed in the municipality’s Section 71 report, which ends in September 2022.
Assuming that this municipality was in good financial standing and was able to settle its creditors within the required 30 days, the R73.2 million in interest that they incurred, could have been used to:
- Purchase, deliver and install 4 867 5000l JoJo tanks in the municipality as it is plagued by water scarcity;
- Provide food parcels to some 60 833 residents in the area at R1 200 per parcel; and
- Build 487 RDP homes.
Despite the implementation of a financial recovery plan in 2018, the municipality still seems to be in a financial spiral. Given the above, the DA has written to the MEC of CoGTA, Mandla Msibi, requesting that he assist this municipality in dealing with its water losses and financial crisis, which is hindering service delivery to its residents.