George Municipality has been officially ranked third in the list of most financially healthy cities in South Africa and ranked second in the Western Cape. South Africa’s 27 municipalities with the largest budgets include the country’s eight metros and 19 secondary cities. Drakenstein Municipality is first, with Steve Tshwete Municipality (Mpumalanga) in second place, and George Municipality (Western Cape) and Emalahleni Municipality (Mpumalanga) jointly in third place overall.

In the Western Cape – the top-performing province – Drakenstein Municipality achieved first place while George Municipality claimed the second place, with the City of Cape Town and Stellenbosch Municipality sharing  third place.

This is according to The State of Local Government Finances and Financial Management as at 30 June 2018 report, just released by Treasury. This report evaluates the state of municipal finances in South Africa, using eight key measures:

1. Cash as a percentage of operating expenditure;
2. Persistence of negative cash balances;
3. Overspending of original operating budgets;
4. Underspending of original capital budgets;
5. Debtors as a percentage of own revenue;
6. Year-on-year growth in debtors;
7. Creditors as a percentage of cash and investments; and
8. Reliance on national and provincial government transfers.

Treasury has rated South Africa’s metros and secondary cities, as well as 186 local municipalities and 44 district municipalities – in total 257 municipalities – on the eight abovementioned indicators.