The Democratic Alliance says the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has now permanently lost R503 million in grant funding that was earmarked for, amongst others, infrastructure development and drought mitigation measures.
DA Councillor and party spokesperson for Budget and Treasury, Malcolm Figg says the ANC coalition must take full responsibility for this devastating financial blow that was dealt to residents.
He says this stems from the current impasse between the Metro and National Treasury, which refused to allow the rollover of the unused grant funding from the 2019/20 financial year.
Figg says the unused funds are deducted from the next respective grant allocations and is effectively lost forever.
He says National Treasury has not made a single payment to the Metro since December 2019, and to date, it has already withheld just under R1,6 billion in grant funding.
This includes R754 million from the 2019/20 financial year and R839 million from the current 2020/21 financial year.
Figg says amongst the key demands that the City received from Treasury, include the appointment of an Executive Mayor and a qualified Municipal Manager.
