The Democratic Alliance in KwaZulu-Natal can today reveal the shocking and out of control ballooning of money owed to the city under ANC eThekwini Mayor, Cyril Xaba, despite professing yesterday about his newfound love for “effective credit control” as articulated in the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).
In the last 12 months under his watch, money owed to the municipality skyrocketed from R31 billion to R37 billion. A nearly 20% increase in just 12 months.
Mayor Cyril Xaba has shown absolutely no interest or willingness to curb this reckless situation which has impacted service delivery under his watch. In fact, his lack of response to this crisis suggests that he is not equal to the responsibilities entrusted to him.
The DA in KZN therefore welcomes the Mayor’s newfound energy and zeal for credit control. However, we must ask, what has he been doing while debt owed to the municipality increased to the point it has.
Xaba’s latest hysterical statement targeting DA MEC’s Martin Meyer and Francois Rodgers must then be seen for what it is: cheap political point scoring to distract the public from his complete failure as a mayor who cannot and will not collect money from people aligned to his party.
As an example, the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education owes the city R900 million, but the Mayor has no plan or interest in collecting this money because that would mean implementing his newfound focus of credit control against one of his party MEC’s.
The Mayor’s very own Councillors that he leads owe the city R84 million, but again, the Mayor has no plan or desire to implement credit control against them because of the perilous position he holds in the ANC caucus.
We therefore urge the mayor to urgently collected the nearly R40 billion owed to the city from politically aligned and connected individuals without delay and put his credit control policy to the test to ensure he is not found wanting before the MFMA.