Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane cannot demand accountability from municipalities while failing to hold his own provincial departments accountable for over R1.6 billion in unpaid municipal rates and service charges.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will refer the matter to the Standing Committee of Public Accounts (SCOPA) to summon accounting officers from defaulting departments to account for their failure to pay municipalities and to enforce compliance with the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA).
The Eastern Cape is facing a deepening economic crisis in a province that has already been hollowed out by weak governance, collapsing infrastructure, poor coordination, and a steady erosion of investor confidence. By failing to pay for municipal services, provincial departments are contributing to the crisis, as these funds are used to deliver basic services such as water, sanitation, electricity, and refuse removal.
Earlier this week, Premier Mabuyane placed the blame squarely on municipalities for poor service delivery following a six-day protest by communities in Mqanduli, who took to the streets after years of dry taps, sewage spills, collapsing roads, and power outages.
The Premier acknowledged that residents’ complaints are legitimate and that government has failed to respond adequately. At the same time, his government is actively starving municipalities of the resources they need to fix the very problems he now condemns.
This contradiction lies at the heart of the Eastern Cape’s service delivery crisis. The same government that warns municipalities against failure is allowing departments to ignore their legal obligation to pay accounts within 30 days, permitting the shifting of funds away from municipal services, failing to enforce consequence management against non-compliant officials, and allowing debt to escalate to the point where municipalities are forced to pursue debt collection or restrict services.
In some cases, municipalities have already begun suspending services to government buildings due to nonpayment.
In response to a parliamentary question from the DA, Finance MEC Mlungisi Mvoko confirmed that Eastern Cape provincial departments owe municipalities more than R1.6 billion, of which R1.5 billion is already older than 30 days. The worst offenders are Public Works, which owes R670 million, Education, which owes R197.7 million, and Health, which owes R164 million.
The scale of the crisis becomes even clearer when the debt is broken down at the municipal level. King Sabata Dalindyebo is owed the largest share at R266 million, followed by Nelson Mandela Bay at R201 million and Amathole at R183 million. Buffalo City is owed R146 million, Chris Hani is owed R128 million, and Matatiele is owed R121 million.
Mvoko admitted that one of the challenges was provincial departments shifting funds meant to pay for municipal services to cover other costs.
Download the response and annexure.
I have written to the chairperson of SCOPA to request that the accounting officers be called to account for their failure to pay municipalities and to enforce compliance with the PFMA.
If the Premier is serious about ensuring communities have water in their taps, functioning sanitation, and reliable electricity, he should start with ensuring his departments pay their share.
Until the provincial government pays what it owes, municipalities will continue to fail, and residents will continue to suffer.