-Staff Writer 24, Mon Nov 2025
The troubled Bloemfontein-based Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality(MMM) has until 1 December 2025 to convince the National Treasury not to cut its next equitable share allocation this is a move that could plunge the city deeper into financial and service-delivery crisis.
Treasury has warned that it may invoke Section 216(2) of the Constitution, read with Section 38 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), due to Mangaung’s persistent failure to curb unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure (UIFW).
If implemented, the sanction would block the metro from receiving its December 2025 equitable share tranche, a critical unconditional grant used to support basic services such as water, electricity, sanitation and refuse collection.
The only Free State Metro is still under a national intervention following its numerous failures to deliver mere basic services to residents. It is also the only metro SA to adopt unfunded budget. Factional battles has also further plunged the metro deep into a political instability.
Meanwhile political parties have reacted to the news that the treasurry could slap the municipality with a budget cut this year.
The Afrikan Alliance of Social Democrats (AASD) has criticised the municipality’s leadership, accusing Executive Mayor Gregory Nthatisi of misleading Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana about Mangaung’s compliance efforts.
AASD representative Zwelekhe Msabe said mayor Nthatisi falsely told the minister that the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) was non-functional, despite its 2023/24 oversight report having been tabled in council and published in June 2025.
Msabe added that the city also failed to explain why its Disciplinary Board, established in 2024, has not produced mandatory quarterly investigation reports into UIFW. No evidence was provided that either MPAC or the board had investigated or reduced UIFW levels.
“This leadership vacuum and persistent financial mismanagement are endangering workers’ salaries, creditor payments, recruitment processes and, most critically, service delivery,” Msabe said.
He warned that Treasury’s intervention signals a bleak outcome for Mangaung’s 2024/25 Auditor-General report, which is expected to worsen compared to previous years.
The municipality now has less than two weeks to convince the Treasury that it can bring its finances back in line with the law or face severe fiscal consequences.
The DA council member, Tjaard Van Der Walt, said this is one of the most serious financial enforcement measures available to the Treasury and signals a Metro on the brink of fiscal failure and service delivery collapse.
He said despite the gravity of this threat, Nthatisi has failed to table the Treasury letter and its implications before Council, keeping both councillors and residents in the dark.
“This is not in compliance with legislation.In terms of MFMA section 52(d), the Mayor must report to Council on “the implementation of the budget and the financial state of the municipality.A threatened stoppage of the equitable share is unquestionably a material financial event and must be disclosed immediately, ” Van der Walt said
Ist also alleged that the Metro’s finances are collapsing. Van Der Walt added that Diesel shortages and non-payment to contractors have already led to a failure to provide basic service delivery in the City in November.
In 2022 It’s alleged that the R500 000 meant for a diesel purchase to service the Metro fleet, including it’s garbage collection trucks, went missing.
” MPAC, the key oversight body mandated to deal with UIFW, is itself dysfunctional. As set out in a DA letter to the Speaker on 6 November, MPAC has not followed its approved work plan. In a last-ditch attempt to address the Treasury and DA letters, on 18 November, a last-minute MPAC meeting was held without prior access to the documentation, contrary to the Standing Rules and MPAC Terms of Reference.A day later, more than R7 million in UIFW expenditure was presented under the same procedural defects. This breakdown undermines lawful oversight at a time when Mangaung needs it most, ” van der walt further said.
News Junction (Gold Standard)