“Buffalo City Metro is not perfect. It has significant challenges, many of them well illustrated. But it is neither dysfunctional nor cash-strapped.”
This was the message of BCM mayor Princess Faku when city bosses appeared before two multiparty parliamentary portfolio committees in Port Edward, KwaZulu-Natal, on Monday.
The mayor delivered her upbeat assessment despite the national government recently introducing a Section 154 intervention in the city, and amid a financial recovery plan which has been in place for a number of years.
The city’s leaders are among those of 19 troubled Eastern Cape municipalities that have been hauled in for a grilling by the portfolio committee on co-operative governance and the standing committee on the auditor-general for a weeklong programme that started on Monday.
Representatives of the Nelson Mandela Bay metro and Amathole District Municipality also appeared before the committees on Monday.
Members of the Bhisho legislature’s co-operative governance portfolio committee, together with Cogta MEC Zolile Williams and his finance counterpart, Mlungisi Mvoko, were also in attendance.
In a presentation signed off by Faku and tabled before the MPs, Faku, who insisted the municipality was stable and slowly turning things around, also highlighted a number of challenges relating to infrastructure development and maintenance, which she said sometimes gave her “sleepless nights”.
“From the onset, it should be indicated that BCM is a functional municipality that has had historical challenges, and we have been implementing a number of remedial measures that are aimed at turning around the situation,” Faku wrote.
Reflecting on municipal governance, city manager Mxolisi Yawa said the metro council was stable and that there was a “seamless political and administrative interface”.
“It is crucial to indicate that though facing challenges, mainly due to a challenging economic situation, BCM is not a cash-strapped municipality,” Yawa told MPs.
“The cash and cash equivalents of the city as of July 31, is R765.36m. This funding is invested with various financial institutions in compliance with the MFMA (Municipal Finance Management Act).
“The year-to-date collection rate as of July 31 2025 is 67.55%, from 44.33% in 2024/2025. This is below expectation, and we are implementing several measures to improve this situation.
“BCM’s liquidity is considered stable as the current ratio is 2.01:1, which indicates the ability of municipality’s current assets to cover its current liabilities,” Yawa said.
Though the city conceded that its billing system was sometimes in a shambles, affecting its revenue collection rate, it raised concerns about an increase in the non-purchase of electricity, saying this was an indication of increased meter tampering.
Yawa said ineligible indigent debtors and the ineffective use of consultants were costing the municipality dearly.
In her report, Faku said the city’s ailing water and wastewater infrastructure had a current replacement cost of R14.6bn, with the recapitalisation backlog for water infrastructure estimated at R3.8bn and R2.2bn for wastewater infrastructure, amounting to a combined funding requirement of R6bn over the next 10 years, “to reverse historic underinvestment”.
To achieve this, Faku said, the city would need to increase its infrastructure renewal expenditure to about R600m annually.
The mayor said BCM had set aside R10m “to undertake a feasibility study into strategies for managing high water demand in identified high-demand areas”.
Among the water and wastewater infrastructure management challenges she highlighted was insufficient funding for renewal, upgrading and refurbishment, which she said had led to the deterioration of infrastructure and noncompliance with legislative requirements.
Faku also cited an inadequate operational, repairs and maintenance budget and vandalism of water and sanitation infrastructure as challenges.
Persistent cable theft and non-technical electricity losses, which cost the city millions of rand, were hampering the provision of services, Faku told MPs.
The MPs sought answers on a number of thorny issues, including the escalating costs of projects in the city such as the Water World Fun Park, which remained in limbo despite more than R12m being paid.
They also wanted answers on water challenges in many parts in the city, the delayed Ebuhlanti upgrades and their ballooning costs, the Mdantsane swimming pool project debacle, the use of consultants, repeated negative audit findings, the inaccurate billing system and the recent industrial action by metro employees.
Reacting to the city’s presentation, DA councillor Anathi Majeke said Faku’s claim that BCM was “neither dysfunctional nor cash-strapped” was “placed in serious doubt by the city’s own evidence”.
“This is contradicted by the very evidence provided in the supporting presentation she has done and lived experiences of residents of the municipality.
“This statement simultaneously and arrogantly celebrates the municipality’s stability, while having to admit to accepting Section 154 national support and being in the midst of a lengthy, fundamental structural overhaul guided by National Treasury’s findings.”
The Beacon Bay Ratepayers Association’s Scott Roebert was not impressed by the claim that the city was not dysfunctional.
“What we want to see is a functional city, and that is what we have not seen in a long while.
“We continually see municipal officials that seem to flaunt great wealth, but our roads seem to get worse and worse, and the quality of our water seems to get even worse.
“We do chat to financial people within the metro and they do talk about how cash-strapped we are. They tell us that our coverage ration is so poor that every rand that is coming into the municipality is already spent.
“So, the mayor’s comment that we are not a dysfunctional municipality, we say to her, prove it, stop talking about all the things that can be done, but actually do the things that have to be done.”
EFF councillor Mziyanda Hlekiso said: “If pothole-riddled roads, poor water provision, dismal billing system and uncomplete infrastructure projects are not a sign of dysfunctionality, then I do not know what is.”
Daily Dispatch
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