By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Midvaal Local Municipality in Meyerton, Gauteng, and Mossel Bay Municipality in Western Cape are listed as two best financially performing municipalities in the country by Ratings Afrika’s annual Municipal Financial Sustainability Index (MFSI).
This is the third time in the row for Midvaal.
The MFSI is a scoring model that evaluates six financial components, namely the operating performance, liquidity management, debt governance, budget practices, affordability and infrastructure development of a municipality; and scores these components out of 100.
Ratings Afrika’s outcome was based after assessing 112 municipalities including the metro councils in the financial year which ended in June 2023.
Both Mossel Bay and Midvaal scored 74 out of a possible 100 with three more Western Cape municipalities named in the top 5. These municipalities are Saldanha Bay (73), Swellendam (72) and Swartland (71).
City of Cape Town was recognised as the top metro in the country with a score of 70.
“We are proud of this achievement as it provides proof of the council’s objectives within the GROW strategy of which the growth and sustainability of good governance is a key element.
“I thank our residents, municipal officials, political office bearers, local community, and business organisations for standing firmly behind good governance and airtight management as we are privileged to have within the executive leadership of the Mossel Bay Municipality,” said the executive mayor of Mossel Bay, Dirk Kotzé.
Midvaal Municipality said in a statement it welcomes this rating.
“Our administration remains committed to continuing to implement sound budgetary practices and stringent financial controls, “Midvaal said.
Mangaung rated as the worst-run Metro in the country.
The recent findings of the Auditor General (AG) shows uncertainty whether the Metro can continue as a going concern, over-time expenditure spiral out of control, debt collection should be intensified and portfolio of evidence supporting quarterly reports by Management is lacking.
Meanwhile Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Thembi Nkadimeng has proposed a threshold for parties to be elected into municipalities.
This would limit the influence of smaller parties with one seat to be kingmakers.
The proposals are contained in the Municipal Structures Second Amendment Bill tabled in Parliament by Nkadimeng where she proposes that there must be a threshold for parties to get elected into council.
The issue of the threshold first emerged during the National Dialogue on coalitions organised by Deputy President Paul Mashatile in Cape Town last August.
The proposal was that parties must get a threshold of 1% to get a seat in council or legislature.
But smaller parties accused the African National Congress (ANC) and the Democratic Alliance (DA) of trying to shout smaller parties from getting a seat in municipalities or parliament.
However, in the Bill that has been tabled by Nkadimeng it stipulated the need to have a threshold to prevent smaller parties accessing power through the “back door”.
The Bill said what has been happening in municipalities was that there would be up to 10 parties that form a coalition. This would lead to a smaller party with one seat occupying an influential position in council.
“However, the current issue with coalition governments at local government level is that a high number of political parties are needed to join together in order to gain a majority in the council. What this means is that coalition governments are sometimes made up of up to 10 or more political parties, the majority of these parties having obtained only one seat each in the council, “states the Bill.