1. To date, only one mandatory financial recovery plan has been prepared for a municipality in the Free State Province. This plan was prepared for the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality in terms of mandatory intervention invoked in December 2019 in terms of S139 (5)(a) and (c) of the Constitution. The draft financial recovery plan has been approved by the Minister of Finance on the 6th of July 2020 and is in the process of consultation and approval as per the requirements of the Municipal Finance Management Act, 2003.
All other interventions initiated in the Free State Province have been initiated as discretionary interventions by the Provincial Executive. Details pertaining to these interventions are outlined in the table below:
Municipality |
Date of FRP Adoption / Indicated on front page of FRP |
Last FRP Report Date from Municipality |
Masilonyane Local Municipality |
December 2017 |
June 2020 |
Mafube Local Municipality |
October 2017 |
No report |
Nketoana Local Municipality |
November 2016 |
June 2020 |
Phumelela Local Municipality |
July 2017 |
June 2020 |
Maluti A Phofong |
August 2018 |
Intervention has been withdrawn by Province |
2. No, municipalities are not implementing financial recovery plans as required.
The nature and extent of breaches are generally consistent amongst municipalities. The most common issues identified by the Municipal Finance Recovery Service Team include:
3. No municipality is currently under an approved mandatory financial recovery plan and therefore this is not applicable.
4. No, discussions were not held with the Minister for Cooperative Governance regarding each of the municipalities under intervention in the Free State Province. In terms of the Constitution, the Department of Cooperative Governance oversees discretionary interventions in terms of S139 (1) of the Constitution. The MFRS unit does oversee the process in terms of monitoring the financial recovery plans in place in the Province and in this way maintains oversight of the financial aspects relating to the intervention process in the Free State Province.However, in the case of the Mangaung Metro, the intervention was jointly launched by the Deputy Ministers for Cooperative Governance and Finance. A War Room jointly chaired by the National Treasury, the Provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and the Provincial Treasury oversees the process on behalf of the Provincial Executive who monitors progress on a quarterly basis and reports to the two Deputy Ministers.