Ten North West municipalities apply to roll over unspent infrastructure grants
The provincial treasury says the requests will be tested against MFMA Circular 134, which allows rollovers only for unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances.
Ten North West municipalities have applied to roll over unspent infrastructure grant money, the provincial treasury said after an engagement session in Haartebeespoort on grant management.
The North West Provincial Treasury, working with the National Treasury, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and the national and provincial disaster management centres, held the session to strengthen how municipalities implement and manage key infrastructure grants.
The rules governing the applications sit in Municipal Finance Management Act Circular No. 134, which sets out the deadlines and documentation municipalities must provide when they ask to carry unspent conditional grants into the next financial year, under Section 21(2) of the 2025 Division of Revenue Act.
The session dealt specifically with the Municipal Infrastructure Grant and the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant. The focus was on planning, spending, reporting and compliance with grant conditions.
Ndlela Kunene, the head of the department, said the engagement took place against the backdrop of equitable share withholdings affecting municipalities, alongside a growing need for effective municipal responses to natural disasters that damage communities and infrastructure across the province.
Kunene said these pressures reinforce the importance of sound financial management, credible planning and coordination between municipalities and the provincial and national institutions that support local government.
The ten applications will be assessed by the National Treasury against Circular 134, which stipulates that rollover requests must arise from unforeseen and unavoidable circumstances to be considered for approval.
Kunene said the Municipal Disaster Recovery Grant is particularly important in enabling affected municipalities to respond to infrastructure damage from declared disasters, while effective implementation of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant remains central to municipal efforts to address infrastructure needs.
The provincial treasury said it will continue working with the National Treasury, COGTA, disaster management structures and municipalities to strengthen financial management and support the effective implementation of municipal grants.
The department said the aim is for municipalities to be better positioned to manage public resources responsibly and for infrastructure funding to contribute to sustainable service delivery and improved conditions in communities.
This report is based on the government’s media statement summarising the engagement, not on the full record of the session. The statement does not name the ten municipalities, does not give the value of the unspent grants, and does not say when the National Treasury will decide on the applications.
Source: South African Government, North West Treasury and partners strengthen support for Municipal Infrastructure Grant management
