Bela-Bela Municipal budget approved

At an Ordinary Municipal Council Meeting, held at Bela-Bela Municipality on Friday 24 May, the Municipal Budget for the financial year 2024/2025 has been accepted and approved in general.

The budget was tabled by the Mayor, Cllr Gloria Seleka and in essence, it indicates an increase of 3% in property tax, 11,43% on electricity, and a general increase of 4,9% on all other aspects.

No increase can be seen as a benefit for consumers, and in the current cash-strapped economy that we are living in, households on the lower end of the income spectrum will feel the effects of this increase.

Cllr JeeDee Cloete of the FF Plus objected to the tabling of the budget because councilors did not have access to the final budget 72 hours before the Municipal Council Meeting as prescribed by the rules, but the speaker, Cllr Zhikali accepted the reply from the mayor that they had a technical issue with their messaging system and the added fact that the meeting had to be moved forward from Thursday 30 May to Friday, 24 May due to the elections.

The FF Plus also voted against the budget, because all documentation associated with the budget was not submitted to opposition parties as required by law, and for the first time, the ‘No’ vote of the FF Plus was also seconded by the DA.

Cloete did however applaud the mayor for the role she played in steering the municipality in the right direction, and with the transparency in the compilation of the budget and the process involved. He did however stress that many administrative issues still need to be alleviated and resolved.

The budget was accepted by a majority vote, and some favorable initiatives mentioned by the mayor to look forward to are:

• The upgrading of the Landfill Site in Ward 2.
• The upgrading of Masakane’s sports field.
• The MIG allocated R28,1 million to Infrastructure Projects.
• The upgrading of Ext 8s water supply.
• The upgrading of Ext 5s roads for the first time in the current democratic dispensation (30 years).
• The establishment of a new cemetery for Pienaarsriver.
• The upgrading of the Leseding Sewer system in Ext 6.
• The Settlers sewer pump upgrade.
• The upgrading of the Bela-Bela sewer works in Ward 1.
• The Tsakane water service upgrade.
• New water retention tank for Ext 8.