Concern grows over eThekwini Municipality's cash coverage amid rising debts

THE amount of money the eThekwini Municipality has on hand to continue functioning in the event of a financial emergency has raised concerns among city councillors, who believe it is too “little” and could lead to failure to deliver services.

- THAMI MAGUBANE

Councillors are calling on the municipality to aggressively collect on outstanding debts to ensure it has enough cash available to maintain operations in case of a financial calamity when it might be unable to collect revenue.

They said having considerable cash on hand was critically important in light of a double digit tariff increase that could come into effect in July. They expressed fears that the tariff hikes could lead to more people failing to pay for services.

The municipality is owed close to R35 billion by households, businesses, and government departments.

Councillors expressed extreme concern about the municipality's cash coverage over the last few months, which they say has been low.

They said in February, cash coverage was less than a month, but it has since improved to around 38 days.