The largest contributor to municipal revenue was grants and subsidies at 30.9%‚ followed by electricity sales at 28.3%‚ property rates at 14.7% and other revenue such as fines‚ licences and permits‚ public contributions and donations accounting for 11%.
Water sales contributed 8.9% to the revenue‚ followed by sewerage and sanitation charges at 3.5% and refuse removal contributed the least at 2.7%.
The results‚ released in Pretoria on Wednesday‚ show that municipalities spent a total of R311-billion of their revenue in 2016‚ with the biggest chunk - 26.3% (R81.8-billion) - spent on employee related costs.
Sivuyile Mbambato‚ of the SA Local Government Association (Salga)‚ said there was nothing out of the norm with the biggest slice of municipal revenue going to employee related costs.