– National Treasury has announced that it will temporarily withhold the July 2026 equitable share transfers to several Limpopo municipalities after years of support and repeated non-compliance.
– The DA calls for municipal leaders and Limpopo’s ANC-led provincial executive to account for failures that have placed essential funding at risk.
– Residents cannot continue paying the price for municipal financial mismanagement and poor provincial oversight.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Limpopo welcomes the decisive action taken by National Treasury, with the support of DA Deputy Minister Ashor Nick Sarupen, to protect the public purse and improve service delivery by temporarily withholding the July 2026 equitable share transfers to five recalcitrant municipalities in Limpopo after years of support and repeated non-compliance.
We will further call on the municipal leaders of the affected municipalities and Limpopo’s ANC-led provincial executive to account before Limpopo’s Portfolio Committee on Provincial Treasury for their failures that have placed essential municipal equitable share funding at risk.
The affected municipalities are the Mopani District Municipality, and the Musina, Thabazimbi, Modimolle-Mookgophong and Fetakgomo-Tubatse local municipalities.
See National Treasury’s announcement here.
We will request the portfolio committee to urgently interrogate this matter, including not only the failure of the municipalities themselves, but also the failure of Limpopo’s provincial executive to exercise effective oversight and ensure that corrective measures were implemented.
National Treasury’s decision follows persistent non-compliance by these municipalities with the Municipal Finance Management Act, despite years of guidance, engagement and support.
This is not a sudden or arbitrary intervention. The DA has consistently drawn attention to these matters and called for provincial intervention. National Treasury has made it clear that these municipalities have repeatedly received assistance through MFMA circulars, direct engagements, training and ongoing support. Yet many continue to adopt unfunded budgets, fail to address unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure, neglect consequence management and default on statutory financial obligations.
Without credible oversight and real consequence management, financial misconduct becomes normalised, municipal infrastructure and service delivery collapse, and public confidence in local government continues to erode.
Apart from the municipal failures, the DA is equally concerned by the failure of the ANC-led provincial government to exercise its statutory oversight functions and ensure that corrective measures were implemented. This points to a broader governance crisis across Limpopo at both municipal and provincial level.
The real victims of this persistent financial mismanagement are residents who rely on municipalities for clean water, functioning sanitation, reliable electricity, maintained roads and other essential services. They should not be forced to bear the consequences of failures by municipal political and administrative leadership, or by Limpopo’s ANC-led provincial executive.
The DA therefore calls on:
- The affected municipalities to publicly outline the corrective measures they will implement to secure the release of the withheld equitable share;
- Provincial Treasury and CoGHSTA to account for why years of monitoring and support have failed to achieve sustained compliance; and
- Municipal councils to ensure that consequence management is implemented against officials and office bearers responsible for repeated breaches of the MFMA, where required by law.
We will further insist that credible financial systems are put in place to ensure good and compliant financial management.
This intervention should serve as a turning point. Limpopo cannot continue with a cycle of reports, warnings and recommendations while municipal finances deteriorate further. Accountability must now move beyond identifying problems. Those responsible must be held to account, and municipalities must be restored to financial sustainability in the interests of the communities they are meant to serve.
The DA will use every oversight mechanism available to it to ensure that residents do not continue to pay the price for municipal financial mismanagement and poor provincial oversight.