Democratic Alliance (DA) Eastern Cape Provincial Leader, Nqaba Bhanga, said on Thursday that the coalition government in Nelson Mandela Bay had again proved that it was incapable of governing the Metro by spending less than half of the Capital Budget. 

In a statement, Bhanga said the coalition, made up of the African National Congress (ANC), Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), United Democratic Movement (UDM) and United Front had spent 41.9% of its Capital Budget for the current financial year.

He said that the coalition would not be able to spend the Capital Budget in its entirety by the end of the 2018/19 financial year which concludes on June 30.

Bhanga said the latest available figures showed that the municipality had spent just over than R892-million of its R2.1-billion Capital Budget, which meant it had less than 45 days to spend more than R1.2-billion.

"It is now clear that the ruling ANC/EFF/UDM coalition of corruption will not be able to spend its Capital Budget and the latest additional R200-million received from National Treasury by the end of the financial year.

If the City does not utilise all of this additional funding by the end of June, it will be forfeited back to National Treasury."

Bhanga said that he had written to newly elected Premier, Oscar Mabuyane, requesting that the new administration urgently intervenes in Nelson Mandela Bay's administration.

"A further cause for concern is that should the City fail to appoint permanent Chief Financial Officer before end of June, it is likely to forfeit all grant funding not yet committed," said Bhanga.