EKURHULENI MMC for Finance Nkululeko Dunda has said the city is not in a financial crisis.
The Ekurhuleni Municipality hosted a special sitting at the OR Tambo Government Precinct in Germiston on Tuesday, 17 October, to outline its financial state.
This comes after the Democratic Alliance (DA) raised concerns about the city’s finances.
Dunda said: "Today the City of Ekurhuleni convened a special council sitting based on the previous council resolution of an urgent motion that was tabled by the DA, and it was the discussion of the finances of the city and subsequently some recommendations and resolves that had to be adopted.
"In the motion, they had mentioned the noting of revenue enhancement exercises in the City of Ekurhuleni and how the motion and the DA caucus in itself were not convinced that this was necessary for ensuring the financial viability of the city."
He said they had to address that narrative as incorrect because it claimed the city owed Eskom an excess of R1,5 billion.
"This narrative has been advanced by not only Eskom, who are ill-informed themselves, but also by the media and political parties.
"The truth is that the R1,5 billion invoice that was given to us by Eskom on the 3rd of October is due on the 28th of October 2023 based on even their invoice as well," said Dunda.
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He said the city had just come from the end of the financial year that just concluded on the 31 August 2023, which meant that the first quarter would have a serious financial constraint on the basis that all financial statements, suppliers and creditors would have to compile all of the invoices for the end of the financial year, including those that have not been declared before to the Department of Finance.
“This will then increase obviously what we'd then owe and what we define as creditors, but we're convinced that the measures that were put in place. It will be easy for us to squash the R1,3 billion that is owed to service providers," he said.
“The department of finance would have to make sure that within the next month or two is squashed off.”
He said Operation Siyacima Manje-Namhlanje has beared fruit as the city has collected more than 90% in terms of the collection rate.
“We have no crisis, but we would like to be in a much better financial situation in the City of Ekurhuleni, and we will find our way there if we just continue to do what we're doing daily and try to increase the revenue," he said.
