Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana says he will announce new measures to regulate the expenditure of conditional grants by municipalities during his Medium-Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) that will take place on the 21st of October in Parliament.

Godongwana was answering questions in the National Assembly as part of the Ministers in the Economic Cluster.

In July, the Finance Minister withheld the equitable share to 69 municipalities due to failures to explain how these funds were spent, while other municipalities used them for operational purposes.

Only a handful of municipalities remain non-compliant and they have been given tranches of the conditional grant until they meet certain conditions.

Godongwana explains the way forward, “We are tightening the regulatory framework to achieve those objectives of making sure that conditional grants are used for what they are intended for. There is also a review which we will highlight when we table the Medium-Term Budget Policy on the 21st, a review of some of these grants in order to avoid those abuses moving forward.”

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