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City of Tshwane refutes claims about its finances

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The City of Tshwane has refuted claims that it’s failing to pay service providers due to its bad finances. The ANC in Tshwane is alleging that the city is on a brink of collapse as it struggles to pay Rand Water, Eskom and many other service providers and creditors.  

The metro has admitted its finances are in a dire state and has blamed administrators who took over for eight months last year. 

The metro’s finances have been a matter of interest since the approval of the budget last week, after reports that it’s bankrupt.   

The ANC in the region claims the city is on a brink of a collapse and attributes this to the DA-EFF coalition.  

Leader of the ANC in Tshwane Council, Dr Kgois Maepa, says, “(The) information we received indicates the city is battling to pay Eskom, Rand Water, and other service providers due to lack of funds and it is using a terrible rotation system adopted by the DAEFF coalition government to appear as if the city has not reached a state of bankruptcy. We now officially report to the public and residents of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality that the city has been ruined by the DAEFF coalition government. The city’s rotation system to make money from Tom and pay Peter doesn’t work.

The DA administration has had a shaky four years, since taking over from the ANC in 2016. It has been rocked by several scandals, including the R12 billion GladAfrica corruption scandal, fake qualifications and the misrepresentation of CV‘s by senior staff.  

There’ve been four mayors in the past four years.  

Maepa says this has damaged the city’s finances.

Moody’s and other organisations – creditors, and other things – when they check a lot of things and what they found is this record. They found the city was very unstable. It has been since 2016 with the GladAfrica corruption and many other scandals that came through with the mayors. Four mayors made four budget speeches. None of them was implemented.”

The City has embarked on a cost-cutting exercise in a bid to restore its financial health. This includes the cancelling of fixed-term contract workers and consultants.

The city says despite the dire finances, it is still able to fulfill its obligations.  

Spokesperson Jordan Griffiths insists there are no financial issues in the city.  

“The City’s financial position is secure. I think there has been a lot of concerns about the fact that the mayor indicated that, in a budget meeting last week Thursday, that the city is technically bankrupt, which from accountancy is correct. The liabilities in the city exceed its assets, but the city can carry on with its operation to ensure that it meets its payment obligations to creditors as well and facilitate basic service delivery.”

The city remains under pressure, with workers also threatening to strike over a wage increase.
 

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