Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Portfolio Committee chairperson Dr Zweli Mkhize pointed out that the City of Tshwane’s progress in stabilising its finances is an encouraging step “in the right direction”. 

On Wednesday, Tshwane mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya provided feedback on the administration’s progress over the last 175 days, which included the City’s first fully funded budget tabled in three years and a significant dent in its Eskom debt.

Mkhize said the improved financial stability would help pave the way for improved, equitable service delivery, however, he also called for regular customer satisfaction surveys.

“The committee believes municipalities must conduct regular customer satisfaction surveys to elicit community feedback on service delivery performance. This is another area where the committee wants to see progress, as the municipality must serve the interests of the people of Tshwane. This means achieving its targets set for service delivery must match the money spent,” he stated.

The progress update followed a committee oversight visit in November last year, in which Mkhize said the City had assured that it had entered into preliminary discussions with Eskom to thrash out a repayment plan.

“The municipality committed to paying off arrears of R6.7-billion over the next five years and paying future invoices on time. Noting the municipality’s revenue enhancement strategy, the committee also urged the City to improve the municipality’s finances, anchored in reducing fruitless and wasteful expenditure and enhanced debt recovery initiatives,” he explained.

Since concluding a payment agreement with the power utility three months ago, the City has paid over R1-billion towards its Eskom debt, reducing it to R5.66-billion.

The committee also asked that the City of Tshwane provide a plan to reconnect with the community and regain lost public trust.

“It also asked for a roadmap, with timeframes, about stabilising the City’s finances and reaching a break-even point. The committee also wanted a roadmap with timeframes for reticulating clean drinking water to Hammanskraal and a plan to prevent the recurrence of similar crises in other communities,” Mkhize said.

He said another stride was the full settlement of the R4.7-billion value-added tax debt linked to the cancelled PEU smart meter contract, as well as intensified revenue collection efforts, the Tshwane Ya Tima campaign, the council-approved debt relief scheme, and a reduced debtor’s book from nearly R30-billion to R25.69-billion by the end of March.

He highlighted that with the City’s debt relief programme, R2.42-billion was written off from registered indigent accounts, and an additional R1.83-billion was cleared from over 31 500 inactive accounts.

“…over 10 200 applications for the debt relief scheme have been submitted so far,” he noted.