Mboweni threatens withholding conditional grants if municipalities underspend

Finance Minister Tito Mboweni has warned that funding for municipalities that underspend their conditional grants will be withheld for at least a month.

He says the approach is one of the measures of dealing with various service delivery-related challenges.

Mboweni revealed this in his response to a written Parliamentary question from the National Council of Provinces.

FF Plus delegate Benjamin Cloete asked Mboweni whether National Treasury had put any measures in place to improve spending in metros.

Mboweni said National Treasury together with the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department have already engaged with the affected municipalities.

Municipalities underspending on urban settlements  

Metro municipalities underspent about R4.6 billion in conditional grant funds meant for Urban Settlements in the 2019/2020 financial year.

This is despite many challenges of service delivery confronting the local sphere of government.

Human Settlements Minister Lindiwe Sisulu revealed this in her reply to a written parliamentary question by the Democratic Alliance (DA) in September last year.

This after the questioned how Sisulu would “mitigate” cash that’s been underspent for a de-densification programme.

-Additional reporting by SABC News