Question NW57 to the Minister of Finance
25 February 2022 - NW57
Sarupen, Mr AN to ask the Minister of Finance
Whether the National Treasury keeps a record of the debts incurred by municipalities; if not, why not; if so, (a) which municipalities have incurred debts in the (i) 2019-20, (ii) 2020-21 and (iii) 2021-22 financial years, (b) what total amount in debt has been incurred by each specified municipality and (c) what is the current total outstanding debt amount owed by each municipality?
Reply:
Yes, National Treasury keeps a record of the debt owed to creditors.
(a)(i)(ii)(iii) The tables (attached as Annexure A) provides the detail of the debt owed by municipalities to creditors for the respective years per province as per the Local Government Data Base - Section 71 reports of the Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003, (MFMA). This information is for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years and the Annual Financial Statements for the 2019/20 financial year.
(b)(c) The column, “Year 2021/22 – Month 06” in Annexure A provides the year to date amount owed by each municipality. The total for municipalities is R76.6 billion (unverified). Due to the amounts being accumulative, it will be the same for total amount in debt as well as current total outstanding.