The eThekwini Municipality has responded to allegations that it failed to spend R1.9 billion in funding meant to fix damage done to infrastructure caused by the floods last year. File Picture: Theo Jeptha/ Independent Newspapers
The eThekwini Municipality has responded to an article published by the Daily News about it failing to spend R1.9 billion in conditional grants allocated to fix infrastructure that it received from the National Treasury.
The Municipality labelled the article as “sensational” and said there was more to be considered.
IOL has seen the letter which prompted the article, which was from the National Treasury to Durban City Manager Musa Mbele.
It was a response from National Treasury to Mbele’s letter to them, dated August 31.
In short, the letter says that the National Treasury approved a roll over of R720.9 million out of R1.9 billion, which the City initially requested.
This R1.9 billion was given to eThekwini as a grant for disaster recovery, which meant these funds were meant to fix damage done to infrastructure that was sustained during the floods last year.
The R720.9 million which the Treasury approved, is meant to fund Human Settlements projects as well as coastal and stormwater projects.
In respect to the R1.2 billion that Treasury denied rolling over, there were a number of reasons stated for their disapproval, including unfinished plans and poor documentation of the projects the Municipality planned to embark on.
On Monday, the City responded and said the matter has not fully unfolded and it would be premature to report on.
“For the record, no money has been forfeited by the Municipality to National Treasury at this stage. The Municipality met with the National Treasury last Thursday to discuss the grant funding,” the City said.
“The Municipality confirms that an application was made to the National Treasury to roll-over unspent conditional grants of R1.885 billion of which R 1.5 billion relates to the Municipal Disaster Management Grant for the flood damages,” it said.
The City said that the funds for the Municipal Disaster Management Grant were only transferred to the City in March 2023, three months before the end of the financial year.
“In terms of the grant framework, the municipality has 12 months to spend the grant. Furthermore, Supply Chain Management processes had to be followed for each of the more than 700 projects,” the City said.
“It was impossible to spend R 1.5 billion in three months, considering the processes to be completed.”
The City’s ability to spend the grant on infrastructure repairs has been questioned by opposition parties in the City, with some questioning their enthusiasm to host events, but apathy when it comes to fixing service delivery issues plaguing the metro.
Visvin Reddy, leader of the African Democratic Changes (ADeC), said it was a shame that the City did not use the money to fix some of the many problems in Durban, especially the water infrastructure.
“Look, I really don’t know what to tell you. We always hear our leaders talk about no funding for this and that, but here they are returning billions. Where is the logic in that?
“They want to host Samas and other big events, but cannot fix the simple things that are broken. That is a sign of poor leadership,” Reddy said.
The Daily News article also featured a number of opposition parties who agreed that the leadership of the City needed to be changed.
IOL