ANC forced to postpone R780m budget adjustment
DA cacus leader Nicole Graham pointed out that it was against the Municipal Finance Agreement Act's guidelines to push through a budget without deliberation.
A FURORE erupted at a meeting of eThekwini Council on Thursday as ANC councillors tried to push through a R780-million adjusted budget, in 10 minutes.
The meeting was scheduled to start at 10am but eventually started at noon after members of council’s Executive Committee engaged in extensive meetings regarding the adjusted budget.
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Nicole Graham, Democratic Alliance eThekwini caucus leader said that smaller parties had not received the budgets and it was wrong to ask them to vote on something they had not seen.
At around 12.24pm, city administrators started handing out the 200-page document.
Tholithemba Mthiyane, EFF councillor, concurred it was unrealistic to ask them to deliberate on a budget that they only had 10 minutes to look at.
“What do you expect us to say? It is becoming difficult to accept the way things are done here,” he said.
Another councillor described the incident as unacceptable, saying it should not be allowed.
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Graham pointed out that it was against the Municipal Finance Agreement Act’s guidelines to push through a budget without deliberation.
“The law expects that the full council, in its entirety, not only Exco, must consider the full implications of the adjustment budget before it takes a vote,” she said.
After a 10-minute adjournment requested by ANC councillors, the Deputy Mayor, Belinda Scott said the vote on the adjustment budget would be postponed to Friday, 28 February, which is the Municipal Finance Management Act deadline.
The adjusted budget includes re-prioritised money from units that failed to spend it. This budget contains allocations for:
*R105-million for Metro Police overtime
*R65-million for Expanded Public Works programme
*R46-million for water repairs and maintenance
*R33-million disaster management grant.
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