Hon Speaker, it has been reported recently that government, or some government departments, owe eThekwini Municipality more than R247 million in unpaid rates.
Outstanding government debt has a detrimental effect not only on municipalities but also directly on the people living in those municipalities.
Government debt to municipalities not only hinders service delivery, it also undermines the leadership that is elected to provide residence with those services, which leads to major dissatisfaction from residents. The origins of many service delivery protests can most likely be tracked to the municipality lacking money to carry out their mandated duties.
Municipalities also need to take full responsibility for the collection of money from government departments, taking steps to curb any corrupt activities within its ranks to ensure that, when they do receive money, it is allocated accordingly to deliver services to the people.
Government departments should not find themselves in debt to municipalities every year. This clearly shows a dysfunctional government and exposes the uncaring attitudes of some government departments. Thank you.