The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) has called for more funding to improve the financial sustainability of municipalities. SALGA briefed the Standing Committee on Appropriations on the 2024 Budget and the Division of Revenue as part of the Money Bills and Related Matters Act on Tuesday, 12 March.
SALGA welcomed the increased allocation of R177 billion to local government. However, they argued that this still did not address the broader issue of inadequate funding at the local level. Ms Lerato Phasha, the representative from SALGA, highlighted the struggles many local municipalities face in covering their expenditures due to high levels of unemployment, poverty, and reluctance to pay for services by communities.
According to SALGA, the R484 million in conditional grants allocated for the financial year 2024/25 was inadequate considering the substantial infrastructure backlogs in municipalities. The organisation called for more funding for local government to address the infrastructure backlogs and cover expenditures in the face of high unemployment rates and poverty levels.
The committee, in response, recommended public-private partnerships with local spheres of government. This approach would involve redirecting revenue from companies operating in provinces toward the areas they operate in and in so doing, they contribute to local investment and development.
The committee also suggested that the local government sphere should not solely rely on the national government but should work towards revitalising and mobilising local businesses to attract local investment. By doing this, municipalities can strengthen their revenue streams and ultimately improve the quality of services they provide to communities. The committee told SALGA that a comprehensive strategy would help alleviate the financial burdens of municipalities and enable them to address their infrastructure backlogs more effectively.
Meanwhile, SALGA also welcomed the rollout of smart meters to the tune of R2 billion for its members in the local government sphere. However, SALGA wants all member municipalities to benefit from this rollout without restricting it to defaulting municipalities that fall under the Eskom debt relief package.
According to SALGA, the rollout should not be left to municipalities alone, but there should be end-to-end support until municipalities can run the installation themselves.
Nueva Nova
A British man on safari walks into a bar far out in the reaches of a game reserve in Southern Africa, he stays at the bar for a while shooting the shit with the bartender and drinking like a fish, he offer to buy the barkeep a round and since no one else is within 2km of their small oasis of liquor the barkeep obliges. The englishman goes off to the bathroom to have a good old go at the porcelain, he\’s back and ready for a few more whiskeys. He\’s just sat down when suddenly in the distance he hears a scream. He looks over his shoulder and dismisses it as nothing, he turns to the barkeep and orders a drink, takes a sip and hears the scream again. He looks at the barkeep who just shrugs it off. A minute or two later he and the barman hear it again and go outside to take a look. They see a lone figure running towards them screaming, he spots them and lets out a cry, RUN!!!!! HE\”S COMING!!!!!
The barkeep and the Englishman both look at the terrified bedraggled sight before them, and try to calm him down, but he\’s completely inconsolable. They give him water and finally manage to get a word out of him but he struggles free from their grasp and run away screaming.
A few minutes later the same thing happens with a whole group of men running in and screaming, he\’s coming, he\’s coming the barkeep grabs hold of one of the men as he tries to sprint past the bar and tries to get information out of him, again no response other than terrified gibberish.
The barkeep and his customer are starting to get worried, they start to pack up before another group of horrified natives run up to the bar most of them flee but one tries to hide behind the bar, the barkeep pulls out a shotgun and points it at the terrified man\’s face, finally managing to coax some words out of him. \”He\’s coming for us, Vernon Koekemoer is coming for us, we have to hide!!! We have to get out of here.\” He gets up and tries to run but the barkeep grabs him, feeling trapped in a panic he grabs the barkeeps shotgun and blows his own head off. The Englishman and the barkeep look at each other starting to really panic now.
They look out of the window and off in the distance they see a tornado coming towards the bar, at the bottom of the tornado they see the hugest beast of a man they have ever seen, as he gets closer they spot that he is riding a rhinocerous and using a crocodile as a riding whip, with each smack of the crocodile across the back of the rhino the louder is screams and the faster it runs, the tornado following it getting ever larger.
The 2 look at each other and start to fortify their position, they\’ve got a gun and they\’re waaay to drunk to run, so they start piling bar stool and tables and anything they can get their hands on to make sure they\’ll be safe when he arrives. They\’re not gonna make it, they can see the man slowing down his rhino, by now the crocodile is nothing but reptile paste on the bruised rump of the half dead rhino, the rhino drops down dead from exhaustion and crashes to the ground right outside the bar the tornado loses it\’s last breath in a cloud of dust as the huge man crashes his way through the make shift barricade and charges up towards the bar where the 2 men have taken shelter, he grabs a bottle of the hardest liquor on the shelf and down the entire litre in 1 gulp, he peers over the bar sobbing and sees the 2 defenders cowering down behind the crates of beer, they look up at the mans\’ face and he stares at them with a look of complete and utter hopelessness, he stares at them for a half second and half screams, half sobs, \”Oh my god what are you still doing here!!! WE HAVE TO GET OUT OF HERE NOW!!!! Vernon Koekemoer is coming!!!!\”
Snow Hound
Before getting into a fight with an ugly person, remember that he has nothing to lose