NELSPRUIT - As the Mbombela Local Municipality (MLM) struggle to recover from its financial difficulties, it is not only ratepayers and residents that are concerned over the future of the local structure. The local business community is also waiting with baited breath to see how the municipality will deal with their budgetary problems and to what extent these problems will influence them.
Mr Johan Barnard, chairman for the Afrikaanse Handelsinstituut (AHI), said the problems for businesses are two-fold in that some of their members who provided a service to the municipality have not been paid for services rendered and are subsequently struggling to keep head above water.
But, he says, what is even more concerning is the possibility that the local government may stop providing some services to the public because of its financial troubles. 
Furthermore, he says rates and taxes will increase because of the MLM's finances. This is proble-matic because Nelspruit's rates have already increased considerably during the past few years.
"It's not just the municipality's problem, but everybody’s. Some of our members have offered their services to the municipality for a long time now, but they haven't taken us up on our offer. There is a capacity problem where things are not being managed correctly," Barnard said.
Mr Andries Oosthuizen, chairman for the Lowveld Chamber of Business, is also concerned about the financial difficulties in our local governing body, as he says these problems definitely has an impact on local businesses.
"We want the municipality to explain the effect of mismanagement and its  financial situation to us so we know to what extent we have to believe the rumours in the media and whether or not they are financially healthy," he said.
Oosthuizen is especially concerned because according to audits done on the municipality the reporting of its finances is not reliable.
"They do not stick to their own budgets but expect us to support them.  Businesses cannot have trust in a structure that is not trustworthy.
 I can confirm that the current state of affairs at the municipality is very concerning for local business people," said Oosthuizen.