A chronic failure by the ANC-run Umkhanyakde district municipality to spend its infrastructure grant has resulted in the withdrawal of the millions allocated to it.
The district, made up of the Mtubatuba, Jozini, Big Five Hlabisa, and Umhlabuyalingana local municipalities and tasked with water and sanitation services in these municipalities, will lose R255 million in the coming days.
The money was allocated to the semi-arid district municipality, which is battling crippling water shortages and collapsed infrastructure, when the 2025-2026 financial year kicked off in July this year.
The grant comes from the national Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), and it provides funding to municipalities for infrastructure projects.
According to CoGTA, the grant’s primary purpose is to reduce the infrastructure backlog and ensure that all households have access to basic services like water, sanitation, roads, and community lighting.
Slow-moving
In a letter addressed to the municipal manager, Musa Nxumalo, from Nolwazi Njokweni, the Chief Director of Local Government Operations and Support KZN, says the municipality is very sluggish in every aspect.
“An amount of R255,662,000 was allocated to your municipality for the 2025/26 financial year. A total of R55,000,000 was transferred as of 31 August 2025. Your municipality reported an expenditure of R8,206,000 which represents 14.92% expenditure against the transfers. Your municipality failed to submit the July report by 10 August 2025,” reads the letter from Njokweni.
Nxumalo confirmed that the grant has been withdrawn and blamed the administration shutdown the municipality recently experienced when there was a dispute over the decision by the provincial CoGTA to deploy Bamba Ndwandwe as the administrator.
“We have received the letter from National COGTA, however it is worth mentioning that uMkhanyakude DM had some challenges in the past two months whereby Provincial COGTA and the Cabinet of KZN instituted section 139 1b intervention. This led to the closure of the municipal offices; however, operations on the ground were on track and continuing by our technical service provider. Also, you will recall that the municipality stood firm on the fact that they do not accept the intervention.
“Mr Ndwandwe ended up as a signatory in the municipality bank account, and the municipal manager could not approve any operational payment with Mr Ndwandwe. Hence Mr Ndwandwe was not approved by the council to be a bank signatory,” Nxumalo said in response to the Sunday World about the matter.
