THE PORTFOLIO Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has cautioned the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality against underspending this financial year.
The Committee received a briefing from the NMB municipality Thursday on its COVID-19 response plan.
It urged the Metro to strike a fair balance between its day to day service delivery responsibility and the implementation of its COVID-19 response plan as they are equally important.
Committee Chairperson Faith Muthambi noted that Nelson Mandela Bay has experienced leadership challenges and has had an acting mayor for the past six months.
She was assured that discussions on the election of the Mayor by the council are due to be finalised by the end of this month.
The municipality also informed the committee that it is owed around R350 million by government departments on property rates and service charges.
Due to COVID -19, the municipality said it forecasts a reduction in revenue collection from Nelson Mandela Bay’s ratepayers and residents, something which will have a negative impact on the delivery of services to the people.
The municipality has applied to the National Treasury to utilise R231 million of the Urban Settlement Development Grant to implement its COVID-19 Response Plan which includes the provision of temporary houses in overcrowded informal settlements areas, chemical toilets, water standpipes and sanitisers and personal protective equipment.
The committee welcomed the announcement by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, that President Cyril Ramaphosa will delegate a minister or a deputy minister to support each district municipality to ensure that the municipalities get the support they need.
Muthambi, however, commended the municipality on its COVID-19 awareness campaign as its website clearly indicates that the municipality is hard at work in response to the pandemic.
“There is a Covid-19 dedicated webpage where one learns of the Metro’s establishment of the Disaster Management Forum to coordinate the local response to the pandemic. The website provides educational information relating to the use of masks, social distancing, contact tracing and You Tube videos to raise the level of awareness on the pandemic and this is what distinguishes them from other municipalities”, said Muthambi.
(Compiled by Inside Metros staff)