Municipalities across South Africa had received an income of R309 billion from all sources of income during the 2014/15 financial year.

According to the Financial Census of Municipalities results released by Statistics South Africa today, for the financial year ended 30 June 2015, this represented an increase of R25.5 billion compared with R283.5 billion in 2014.

The largest contributor to municipal revenue was grants and subsidies received (31%), followed by electricity sales (28.3%), property rates received (14.7%), other revenue (11.2%), water sales (8.5%), sewerage and sanitation charges (3.7%), and refuse removal charges (2.8%).

Municipal expenditure patterns

The results showed that municipalities spent a total of R289.3 billion in 2015.

The largest contributor to municipal total operating expenditure was employee-related costs (25.6%), followed by electricity purchases (21.7%), depreciation and amortisation (9.3%), other expenditure (9.1%), bad debts (7.3%),  general expenditure (5.4%), water purchases (5.4%), contracted services (5%), repairs and maintenance (5%), interest paid (2.7%), grants and subsidies paid (2.4%), and remuneration of councilors (1.2%).

Disposal of property, plant, and equipment and other assets

The report further showed that out of total asset disposals of R1.9 billion, infrastructure assets contributed the highest proportion (47.8%), followed by other assets (27.8%), and land and buildings (10.7%).

Municipal total liabilities

On 30 June 2015, municipalities owed their suppliers and other creditors an amount of R197 billion, 11.6% more than in 2014.

The provinces which showed the highest percentage increases between 2014 and 2015 were Free State (40.4%), North West (18.3%), Gauteng (17.2%) and Mpumalanga (13.9%).

The provinces which contributed the least to the increase in total liabilities between 2014 and 2015 were KwaZulu-Natal (0.5%), Western Cape (3.9%), Eastern Cape (5.6%) and Limpopo (6.6%).

Purchases and sales of water and electricity

Purchases of water increased from R13.8 billion in 2014 to R15.3 billion in 2015 (11%), while sales of water reflected an increase from R23.4 billion to R25.8 billion (10.1%) over the same period.

Purchases of electricity increased from R58.5 billion in 2014 to R61.9 billion in 2015 (5.9%), while sales of electricity reflected an increase from R80.8 billion in 2014 to R86.1 billion in 2015 (6.6%).