Gauteng Metro's underspent R3,4 billion on human settlements
17 March 2015
Ekurhuleni Metro and the Cities of Johannesburg and Tshwane collectively underspent R3.4 billion on their allocated Urban Settlements Development Grant (USDG) in the 2013/14 financial year. This means that scores of South African people are without the necessary infrastructure that is promised and owed to them by the Gauteng provincial government.
This was revealed in today's Portfolio Committee on Human Settlements. The Committee was briefed by the Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements, Jacob Mamabolo, on his department's performance in Metro municipalities in delivering housing opportunities and spending of the USDG.
The USDG is allocated to metros for the construction and improvement of human settlements. The metro's outrageously spent some of the grant funding on capacity building in the various departments and on line items such as the JOSHCO project in Johannesburg, Cemeteries in the Tshwane North Region and more shockingly the Ekurhuleni Metro Police Department.
The Committee also heard the Metro's have 3 months to spend these funds allocated to them for the development of human settlements before the end of the financial year. This is ludicrous given that the Metro's had almost a year to allocate these funds to projects which they have not delivered on.
According to the Financial Performance Report presented before the Committee the Metro's underspent as follows (Click here for the full report):
|
Metropolitan Municipalities in Gauteng |
Underspent of USDG |
Percentage of total budget underspent |
|
Ekurhuleni Metro Municipality |
R1,235 768 514 |
67,73% |
|
City of Tshwane |
R 838 476 698 |
64,1 % |
|
City of Johannesburg |
R 1,344 301 000 |
79% |
|
Total |
R 3,418 546 212 |
|
Gauteng also underspent its allocated budget to improve conditions of mining towns by R48.8 million.
I will therefore be writing to the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee, Nocawe Mafu, to request that she summon the Gauteng Department of Human Settlements at the end of the financial year, to deliver a comprehensive report on their "fiscal dumping" on the remainder of the metros USDG funds.
We cannot allow metro's to underspend their allocated grant funding for the delivery of housing opportunities. The DA caucuses in each of these metro's will be pursuing action in their respective councils.
Statement issued by Makashule Gana MP, DA Shadow Minister of Human Settlements, March 17 2015
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