National Treasury is temporarily withholding the July equitable share transfers to 70 municipalities across all nine provinces in an effort to “instil fiscal discipline and ensure that public money is properly managed”.
Treasury says the goal is also to address unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, and to ensure that municipal officials and office-bearers are held accountable for their management of public funding.
A local government equitable share is aimed at enabling municipalities to provide basic services (water, electricity, sanitation and refuse removal) to households, especially the poor. It is distributed as unconditional grants, which means municipalities may decide how to spend it within their array of functions.
Treasury says the decision to withhold the funding follows what it calls persistent and serious non-compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) and its supporting regulations.
The municipalities involved are as follows, with the Free State in the lead, followed by North West.
