{"id":93479,"date":"2025-11-26T17:58:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T17:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs"},"modified":"2025-11-26T18:33:58","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T18:33:58","slug":"mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs","title":{"rendered":"Mashatile: Municipalities Can’t Rely on Debt Write-Offs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. <\/strong><\/span>Deputy President Paul Mashatile said struggling municipalities cannot expect debt write-offs to become the norm.<\/p>\n

He said municipalities that fail to comply with Treasury conditions to manage their finances will not be eligible for the bailout.<\/p>\n

Municipalities owe Eskom and water boards billions of rands in unpaid debt.<\/p>\n

Answering questions in the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) on Tuesday, Mashatile did not rule out merging non-viable municipalities that can\u2019t survive.<\/p>\n

Mashatile said municipalities can\u2019 rely on grant funding meant for infrastructure development to plug the gap owing to a lack of revenue.<\/p>\n

Treasury is withholding equitable share transfers to municipalities with large debts to bulk service providers and redirecting the money to pay suppliers instead.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not going to keep debt relief forever. Eskom and water boards can\u2019t afford that. They need those resources to be able to expand services.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mashatile, however, said the lack of a revenue base in some municipalities can\u2019t be ignored.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the long run, we may even merge municipalities to ensure viability.\u201d<\/p>\n

He said the African National Congress is switching up its political leadership in failing municipalities, where it\u2019s attempting to identify the cause of service delivery collapse.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About South-Africa<\/span> Follow Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – South-Africa. Deputy President Paul Mashatile said struggling municipalities cannot expect debt write-offs to become the norm. He said municipalities that fail to comply with Treasury conditions to manage their finances will not be eligible for the bailout. Municipalities owe Eskom and water boards billions of rands in unpaid debt. Answering questions in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":93478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,12],"tags":[275],"class_list":["post-93479","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-policy","tag-south-africa-2"],"yoast_head":"\nMashatile: Municipalities Can't Rely on Debt Write-Offs - South Africa<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Deputy President Paul Mashatile said struggling municipalities cannot expect debt write-offs to become the norm. He sai ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Mashatile: Municipalities Can't Rely on Debt Write-Offs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Deputy President Paul Mashatile said struggling municipalities cannot expect debt write-offs to become the norm. He sai ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"South Africa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-26T17:58:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-26T18:33:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1764169391.791312.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"630\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Mashatile: Municipalities Can’t Rely on Debt Write-Offs\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-26T17:58:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-26T18:33:58+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs\"},\"wordCount\":218,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1764169391.791312.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"South-Africa\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"policy\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs\",\"name\":\"Mashatile: Municipalities Can't Rely on Debt Write-Offs - South Africa\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1764169391.791312.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-26T17:58:07+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-26T18:33:58+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Deputy President Paul Mashatile said struggling municipalities cannot expect debt write-offs to become the norm. He sai ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1764169391.791312.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1764169391.791312.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":630,\"caption\":\"Mashatile: Municipalities Can't Rely on Debt Write-Offs\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Mashatile: Municipalities Can’t Rely on Debt Write-Offs\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/\",\"name\":\"South Africa\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Mashatile: Municipalities Can't Rely on Debt Write-Offs - South Africa","description":"Deputy President Paul Mashatile said struggling municipalities cannot expect debt write-offs to become the norm. He sai ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Mashatile: Municipalities Can't Rely on Debt Write-Offs","og_description":"Deputy President Paul Mashatile said struggling municipalities cannot expect debt write-offs to become the norm. He sai ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs","og_site_name":"South Africa","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2025-11-26T17:58:07+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-11-26T18:33:58+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":630,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1764169391.791312.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Mashatile: Municipalities Can’t Rely on Debt Write-Offs","datePublished":"2025-11-26T17:58:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-26T18:33:58+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs"},"wordCount":218,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1764169391.791312.jpg","keywords":["South-Africa"],"articleSection":["all news","policy"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs","name":"Mashatile: Municipalities Can't Rely on Debt Write-Offs - South Africa","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1764169391.791312.jpg","datePublished":"2025-11-26T17:58:07+00:00","dateModified":"2025-11-26T18:33:58+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Deputy President Paul Mashatile said struggling municipalities cannot expect debt write-offs to become the norm. He sai ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1764169391.791312.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/sites\/31\/2025\/11\/sm_1764169391.791312.jpg","width":1200,"height":630,"caption":"Mashatile: Municipalities Can't Rely on Debt Write-Offs"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/all-news\/mashatile-municipalities-cant-rely-on-debt-write-offs#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Mashatile: Municipalities Can’t Rely on Debt Write-Offs"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/","name":"South Africa","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=93479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/93479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/93478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=93479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=93479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/south-africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=93479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}