The South African Local Government Association (Salga) has welcomed the declaration of a State of Disaster over the country’s energy crisis, and it hopes to play a central role in the process.

In an exclusive interview with Polity following last week’s State of the Nation Address tabled by President Cyril Ramaphosa, Salga president Bheke Stofile said that the energy crisis had always been a disaster for local government.

He hopes that the State of Disaster will yield positive results through centralised planning, execution and speedy responses to the challenges facing communities.

Discussing the issue of municipal debt, he said the historical trend of not paying for services in South Africa had had a negative impact on service delivery in local government.

He pointed out that municipalities were owed R290-billion by government, households and businesses.

“Generally, as a country, and if government, businesses and households were paying the municipalities, we wouldn't be having this conversation about municipalities not paying Eskom,” said Stofile.

When asked what Salga was doing to fight corruption in municipalities, Stofile acknowledged that corruption must be dealt with decisively, and described it as a cancer that is robbing ordinary citizens.

However, he added that municipalities should not be punished owing to corrupt officials [by having their power supply curtailed].  

He said the current funding model of local government was not sufficient. He said if people stole, they should be arrested.

Stofile shared that Salga would be meeting with Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana to discuss the 9% allocated to local government which he said did not hold water and must be reviewed.