Tshwane still reeling from unfunded budgets

By Simon Nare

Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) heard on Tuesday how the City of Tshwane is still struggling to recover from years of financial instability caused by unfunded budgets, weak revenue collection and poor audit outcomes, even though some areas of expenditure control have improved.

Tshwane mayor Dr Nasiphi Moya told the committee that the metro’s financial troubles could be traced back to the 2020/2021 financial year, when the city adopted an unfunded budget with an average deficit of about R4 billion.

Moya said the trend continued for four years, affecting the city’s ability to deliver on its promises to residents. Although the deficit was later reduced to about R2 billion, the municipality was unable to secure a loan to augment its finances because of its audit findings.

“So, while we were looking at how do we then stabilise the finances of the institution, we had to