In a 'horror' meeting with National Treasury, several sources have confirmed that the fiscus has threatened to withhold the Nelson Mandela Bay metro's equitable share for December over the metro's failure to address R22bn in irregular expenditure - the highest in the country.

The National Treasury has threatened to withhold the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality's equitable share payment for December in protest against failures by the metro to deal with R22-billion in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure. This amount is the highest in the country.

The National Treasury delivered this warning during a meeting on Monday, after its earlier decision to reclaim R142-million in unspent conditional grants because the metro has had an acting city manager for longer than six months.

Withholding the equitable share - a key unconditional payment - could affect service delivery as this money is ordinarily used to provide basic services to all residents, assistance to poor households and cover the costs of basic municipal administration. The metro does have reserves, but lately has been running at a R1.58 billion deficit, necessitating the use of these reserves.

Member of the mayoral committee for treasury, the EFF's Khanya Ngqisha, said in a video statement issued...