Opposition parties in the eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal claim that the city is going to lose a whooping R1.2 billion in unspent grant funds, that they claim must be returned to National Treasury. The grants were allegedly earmarked for infrastructure projects. During a chaotic council meeting on Tuesday, EFF councilors clashed with police after refusing to leave the council meeting.
What was meant to be an eThekwini council meeting earlier this week, turned into a wrestling match between members of the EFF and the police. Videos on social media show EFF councilors allegedly assaulting Metro Police. This was after the Speaker Thabani Nyawose asked that these councilors be removed. However, the EFF’s Themba Mvubu has defended their actions, saying they were defending themselves.
“It is self-defense, so we were not going to give them roses if they come and manhandled us. So, there is really nothing EFF members did which was not permitted because if you come and bring violence to me what must I do. Did you see that they were actually dragging and manhandling female councilors,” says Mvubu.
The bone of contention are reports that eThekwini must return R1.2 billion in unspent grants to National Treasury. This comes at a time when the city is grappling with challenges including dilapidated infrastructure and infrastructure that was damaged by the 2021 floods. ActionSA’s Zwakele Mncwango has accused the municipality of misleading councilors. He claims he is in possession of a copy of a letter from National Treasury informing them the unspent funds be returned.
“The city is not transparent with us as well as councilors because what has happened is that it was through whistleblowers within the municipality that leaked a letter from Treasury and said are you aware as councilors that Treasury has responded to the request of a roll-over and rejected the city’s R1.2 billion roll over and only approved R700 million. That we are raising with the mayor as well that you can’t hide that information to us as councilors and the issue that says it’s the Treasury that come down and asked for budget cuts, it is just a lie,” says Mncwango.
However, Speaker Thabani Nyawose has denied that the money to be returned to the National Treasury is the unspent grant funding.
“It’s misleading and not true that the cabinet took that decision as a result of the failure of the municipality to spend that grant because the letter is very clear on why the grant is being withdrawn then the EFF could not accept that,” says Nyawose.
In a statement, the eThekwini Municipality says that among the main reasons for the rollover of the grants are that the R1.53 billion from the Municipal Disaster Management Grant for the flood damages, was only received on March 16th this year. They further state that it was impossible to spend R1.5 billion in three months considering the processes to be completed. Meanwhile, the council meeting will be reconvened on a date yet to be announced.
Source: eNCA
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