Note to Editors: Please find attached soundbites in English and isiXhosa by Cllr Luvuyo Sizani and Afrikaans by DA Frontier Constituency Leader Jane Cowley MPL
- The DA welcomes Treasury’s lawful action against Makana’s financial delinquency.
- National Treasury’s action shows that stronger accountability is finally being brought to bear on municipalities.
- A special Council meeting must be convened for the municipality to provide an action and recovery plan.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) welcomes National Treasury’s decision to temporarily withhold the July 2026 equitable share transfer to the Makana Local Municipality after persistent MFMA non-compliance and failures to address unauthorised, irregular, fruitless, and wasteful expenditure.
National Treasury’s action shows that stronger accountability is finally being brought to bear on municipalities that mismanage public money, ignore creditors, fail to pay Eskom and water boards, and still expect business as usual.
With DA Deputy Finance Minister Ashor Sarupen helping to advance this accountability agenda, Treasury’s intervention makes clear that financial delinquency in local government can no longer be tolerated. Municipalities must now prove that they are correcting misconduct, paying creditors, and managing public funds responsibly before withheld funds are released.
In Makana, residents are already paying for this failure through broken roads, sewage spills, unreliable electricity, and ageing water infrastructure. Money meant to rebuild the municipality is being withheld, stopped, returned, or left unspent while communities wait for the most basic of services.
This development is of grave concern, particularly because the municipality never informed Council that National Treasury had initiated a process that could ultimately result in the withholding of one of the municipality’s most critical revenue sources. Council should have been afforded the opportunity to exercise its oversight responsibilities.
I have therefore written to the Mayor, Municipal Manager, Speaker, Chief Financial Officer and Chairperson of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee to request feedback on when the municipality first received correspondence from National Treasury.
We have also requested urgent feedback on why Council was not informed of this matter, and what reasons were advanced by National Treasury for withholding the allocation.
Some of our other questions include:
- What immediate intervention plan has been developed to ensure that service delivery and the municipality’s financial obligations are not compromised?
- Has National Treasury indicated what corrective actions are required before the equitable share can be released?
- When will Council receive a comprehensive report on this matter?
This matter is extremely urgent and a special Council meeting must be convened during which the municipality must provide an action and recovery plan.
The DA will fight for a stable, accountable, and competent government in Makana that spends the money it receives, protects grants meant for residents, enforces consequences, and gets the basics right.
This is why residents must go to the ballot box on 4 November and vote for the DA so that we can get Makana working.