Reasons for voting against adjustment budget
As a concerned ratepayer, I voted according to my conscience once again and not along political party lines.
Here are the reasons why Alderman Izak Berg and IRASA voted against the adjustment budget of the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) put forward by the DA-led coalition government that includes the FF+, ACDP, Cope, actions and IFP.
The DA-led coalition increased the income on property rates by R900-million after they committed that they will scrap the valuation role and redo it when they govern the metro.
They once again lied to the ratepayer just to get your vote. They are also sending a message to the ratepayers that their objections are not going to be successful.
They increased the debt impairment by R1.125-b and the reason given is that this is due to low collection rates. In other words, they are too lazy to implement credit control. The collection rate has fallen from 90% to 85% since the DA-led coalition took over the CoE, which means you, the ratepayers are subsidising the non-payers.
The DA has cut the employee-related costs by R154-m at a time when we desperately need to fill the vacancies and employ more engineers and technicians to cope with the numerous electrical outages and water losses plaguing the CoE.
They reduced the capital budget for EMPD by R43-m at a stage when we need more vehicles to improve visible policing in the metro.
They reduced the capital budget on waste management by R34-m, which will have a huge effect on the collecting of refuse.
They reduced the capital budget on real estate by R56-m meaning no more lifts for old age homes; luckily the lifts of Silverkroon and other old age housings have been replaced.
The fact that they reduced ERWAT’S capital budget by R20-m when the CoE have all these sewage problems is very alarming.
They reduced the kilometres of water and sewer pipes to be replaced from 20km to 7km when we currently have a crisis on water and sewer infrastructure.
They reduced the number of new water connections from 1 000 to 0, which will increase water losses in the CoE.
They took away the budget for the upgrade of energy substations in the original budget while we have a huge crisis in the CoE when it comes to energy supply.
The total cuts on the capital budget came to a staggering R510-m.
As a concerned ratepayer, I voted according to my conscience once again and not along political party lines.
The time has come to establish ratepayers’ organisations in every town in the City of Ekurhuleni and remove the controls from political parties.
Alderman Izak Berg – IRASA
