Tshwane Executive Mayor, Randall Williams, says a preliminary perusing of the Metro’s financials shows that it moved from a surplus to a deficit of more than R4 billion during the seven months the African National Congress (ANC) administrators were in charge.
The City was put under administration after the Democratic Alliance (DA) led council was dissolved:
The party regained control of the Metro last month after the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled in its favour that the decision by Gauteng MEC for Human Settlement Lebogang Maile to dissolve the council was unlawful.
Williams says if the City continues in the same way, it will be bankrupt at the end of the coming financial year. The administrators still need to officially hand over the City to Williams who was elected as Executive Mayor last week.
Williams received 97 votes, while the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) candidate Moafrika Mabogwane garnered 25 votes:
The new Mayor says the financial statements will be sent to auditors to determine where all the money went.
“In March, when they removed us from office the debtors’ book was standing at R13 billion. So, they said they need to take over the city, so they can implement a financial recovery plan. After their financial recovery plan has been implemented for 7 months the debtors’ book has ballooned from R13 billion to over R18 billion. Our cash to cost coverage, because of the money we had in the bank, we could still roll out services for 52 days if everything had to stop, no more revenue coming in. The administrators reduced that to 12 days.”
