DURBAN - KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Finance Nomusa Dube-Ncube says the state of many of the province's municipalities, where they fail to deliver services or to handle public money with integrity, cannot be allowed to continue.
She was addressing the business community of the uMgungundlovu District at a business breakfast held at the Golden Horse Casino on Thursday.
Dube-Ncube was speaking during the Pietermaritzburg leg of the Provincial Treasury Post-Budget Business Breakfast
The MEC and the Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Business hosted panellists who dissected her budget speech, tabled earlier this month, aimed at identifying opportunities that could be exploited.
She was joined by uMgungundlovu District mayor Mzi Zuma and Msunduzi Local Municipality mayor Mzi Thebolla.
Dube-Ncube said the capacity of local government is essential for all governments to render effective and efficient services to communities.
“We have therefore allocated more resources to Cogta (the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs). The budget will be used to strengthen our intergovernmental relations structures to ensure better alignment between national, provincial and local government programmes and projects.
“We are also focusing on improving the effectiveness of municipal governance, and in particular technical and financial management, to improve service delivery and audit outcomes.
“It is true that some KZN municipalities have failed to live up to their mandate, and have failed to handle the public purse with integrity, having had to be placed under administration. We want to make a firm undertaking that we cannot in all honesty allow that situation to continue,” said Dube-Ncube.
Dube-Ncube also emphasised the importance of revenue collection by municipalities, not only as a way for municipalities to bring services to people, but to help stimulate the local economies.
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