Council must adjudicate over proposed adjustment budget
Municipality faces financially precarious situation if budget is not passed.
Ekurhuleni Mayor Tania Campbell and the multi-party coalition have implored all political parties represented in the city to take cognisance of the magnitude of the adjustment budget and endeavour to allow council processes to take place unhindered.
The appeal follows the eruption of chaos at recent council meetings.
“With the passing of each day, the urgency for the council to sit and adjudicate over the proposed adjustment budget grows more severe,” said Campbell.
“The original budget, which was compiled in May 2022, needs to be reworked as the needs of the city have changed since then. The purpose of this adjustment budget is to re-align our finances to match up with the current challenges facing the city.”
According to Campbell, special attention in this budget has been given to the energy department to improve aging infrastructure, which has been negatively impacted by extreme load-shedding.
It will also assist with plans to become more energy independent and less reliant on Eskom.
“Similarly, additional funds will be made available to ERWAT to mitigate water shedding as a result of Rand Water’s inability to ensure a stable water supply,” said Campbell.
“Additional funds will be made available to the waste department to procure desperately needed new trucks to ensure that waste collection is stabilised and this department operates at its full capacity.
“Should this budget not pass, the city will find itself in a financially precarious situation which will have dire consequences for service delivery, ultimately negatively impacting on the four million residents of Ekurhuleni.”
