Tshwane mayor blames metro's financial woes on Maile's decision to place it under administration

Tshwane mayor Randall Williams has responded to reports that the City of Tshwane is experiencing serious financial problems. 

This comes after co-operative governance and traditional affairs and human settlements MEC Lebogang Maile requested Williams to respond to reports about Tshwane's financial woes. 

In a statement, Maile said the reports highlighted the city’s failure to pay the salaries of staff on time or at all for September, struggling to pay Eskom and, as a result, facing the possibility of disconnection of electricity services. 

The municipality failed to settle debt to Eskom of R1.6bn, paying only R492m of its electricity bill in September. 

“And as a result facing the possibility of disconnection of electricity services and had its fleet parked due to the unavailability of diesel as the municipality allegedly had no money to pay service providers for the supply of diesel. These reports suggest the city is experiencing serious financial problems,” said Maile.

In response, Williams questioned the MEC’s decision to place his request for information “in the media space”.

According to Williams, the financial woes began in 2020 when Maile placed the city under administration.

“It would be appropriate to remind the MEC that many of the issues faced by the City of Tshwane today are a direct result of the R4bn deficit incurred when he unlawfully placed the city under administration in 2020,” said Williams.

“They took the surpluses from the years before and wrecked them. We have systematically been working to turn around the finances ever since. This information and further details will be communicated to Maile in my formal response.” 

TimesLIVE

Support independent journalism by subscribing to the Sunday Times. Just R20 for the first month.