On 17 April 2009, the Minister of Finance promulgated the Municipal Budget and Reporting Regulations in Government Gazette 32141. In terms of Government Gazette 31804 of 23 January 2009, twenty-seven municipalities were required to prepare their 2009/10 budgets and MTREF in accordance with the new prescribed formats. All the remaining municipalities have to comply with the new formats when they prepare their tabled budgets for 2010/11 which are due on 31 March 2010.
Of the twenty-seven municipalities, twenty-four complied to a greater or lessor extent with the new budget format requirements (those that failed to comply are: Newcastle, Rustenburg and Matjhabeng). While the intention is to publish the budgets as they are received from municipalities, this is not possible this round. National Treasury has therefore extracted the core budget information available in each of the municipalities' budgets and presented it in the prescribed format, which is presented below. In certain instances, obvious mistakes in some municipalities' information has been corrected, as a result the information published here may differ in some respects from the information submitted by individual municipalities. National Treasury and provincial treasuries will be working with these municipalities to enhance the accuracy and completeness of their information.
It is envisaged that publishing municipal budget information in these new formats will greatly increase transparency and understanding of municipal finances, and so facilitate more effective oversight.