Minister of Finance Trevor Manuel is to pump more into the service delivery next week by announcing a R6,4-billion windfall for local government.
The "substantial resources" are expected to be announced during the 2003/2004 Budget presentation next Wednesday.
The amount would be an addition to the yet-to-be-known basic local government allocation.
Last year (2001/2002), municipal government was granted an R8,6-billion slice from the national treasury's main cake of R287,9-billion.
Logan Wort, spokesperson for Manuel, confirmed that substantially higher allocations were headed the way of provinces and local government.
But municipal authorities should be warned, says Manuel.
The national government is poised to crack the whip on authorities found responsible for lax fiscal control.
Speaking at a national conference of the South African Local Government Association recently, Manuel said the budget would mark a significant injection of additional resources to provinces and local government, earmarked for spending over the next three years.
His move was qualified by the fact that provinces were directly charged with disbursing funding for a host of social services, including welfare grants, roads infrastructure and schooling.
And it was local government that was responsible for the delivery of basic services like water and electricity and the establishment of municipal service infrastructure.
Manuel said the main local government challenges were:
- Huge infrastructure backlogs;
- Formulation of policy on indigents;
- Restructuring of electricity;
- Consolidation of infrastructure grants;
- The pending unification of the public service sector;
- And the collective responsibility to govern the country in accordance with the constitutional framework.
"The allocation will continue to focus on the enhancement of municipal infrastructure investments, which complements provincial spending, and housing projects as well as the broadening of access to free basic services," said Manuel.
The focus on provinces and local government would ensure the government would be better placed to service the poor.