Africa-Press – South-Africa. GOOD and the DA are at loggerheads after the Theewaterskloof municipality said R35 million in unused grants would be returned to the national government.
This was stated at the recent council meeting during the tabling of the draft budget.
The municipality said the money was forfeited due to non-performance and the lack of implementation of projects.
The municipality’s deputy mayor and GOOD party member, John Michels, said the municipality was forced to give the funds back amid a dire housing shortage.
“When we took over as a new council in November last year, there were no housing projects underway,” he said.
Theewaterskloof deputy mayor, speaker in crosshairs as ANC, GOOD square off with DA
He said no houses were built, while over R50 million was available.
“All planned projects or those that had already started were plunged into crisis, and came to a standstill,” he said.
“It took us, as a new administration, five months to resolve these crises – and now we can start again with existing projects that had come to a standstill.
“Unfortunately, our new financial year starts in June, and we will only be able to spend part of the current financial year’s budget and the others will have to go back.
“This failure to use all our money in this budget for housing will cause us to get less in the new budget for housing.”
According to the municipality, the decision came after the DA did not spend grants from national and provincial governments.
DA councillor Piet Stander told News24 the party’s caucus was concerned about the money being returned.
“Several cadres were deployed and senior officials were suspended or demoted. The breakdown of staff morale and the ongoing political intervening of the mayor and his mayco in the administration had an adverse effect on the conclusion of projects – and this resulted in the non-spending,” he said.
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