uThukela Municipality debt crisis due to poor governance: Hlabisa – SABC News

Cooperative Governance Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa says the financial crisis facing the uThukela District Municipality, in KwaZulu-Natal poses a serious risk to staff salaries being paid, and services being delivered to residents.

The uThukela District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal has cited budget constraints as the reason for its failure to provide water to residents. pic.twitter.com/c9EgheQCVA
— SABC News (@SABCNews) February 20, 2025

The municipality’s bank accounts have been attached over an outstanding debt of at least R130m to RASP Consultants. The company did work on water infrastructure for the municipality. The municipality reportedly missed a payment in terms of a repayment plan in December last year leading to the attachment order, in January.
Hlabisa told a stakeholder meeting that the situation is the result of years of poor governance.

HAPPENING TODAY | Ladysmith, KZN@NationalCoGTA Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa and @kzngov Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli are leading an oversight engagement in uThukela District Municipality.#EveryMunicipalityMustWork pic.twitter.com/f0joawfiNO
— NationalCoGTA (@NationalCoGTA) March 9, 2026

“As the Minister of (CoGTA) I received a formal request from the Northern KwaZulu Natal Chamber of Business expressing their serious concerns about the impact on production, jobs, investor confidence if water and sanitation services are disrupted and if payroll uncertainty persists,” adds Hlabisa.
The uThukela District Municipality says it owes its creditors close to R1 billion. Municipal Manager, Langelihle Jili says the district council decided they need to discuss a repayment plan with creditors.
“Our creditors list is standing at more than R800m, close to R1bn. People that we owe as uThukela. We took a very sober decision with our council to say we need to start engaging our creditors so that we can be able to come up with a proper payment plan. Our payment plans were just going to run for a period of 8 years, to settle those creditors. But some are refusing. They’re saying 8 years is the longest period of time,” says Jili.
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