Ekurhuleni passes adjustment budget
According to Ekurhuleni, the budget is a move to go back to basics.
The City of Ekurhuleni passed the adjustment budget for the city for the 2021/2022 financial year during a council meeting on February 24.
According to the spokesperson for the office of the mayor, Phakamile Mbengashe, the adjustment budget will reroute the city on a path back to basics to ensure quality service delivery to the residents of Ekurhuleni.
“The multi-party coalition inherited a city with massive service delivery backlogs, a poor financial state and an investment rating downgrade by Moody’s in November 2021,” said Mbengashe in a press release on behalf of the office of executive mayor Alderman Tania Campbell.
“As a result, our cash on hand of 25 days as of June 30, 2021, deteriorated to 14 days at the end of September 2021. However, by the end of December 2021, we could recover to 21 days cash on hand, still woefully short of the National Treasury requirement of 30 days.”
Focus on service
Because of the downgrade in Moody’s ranking of the City and the precarious financial position, the proposed borrowings for the financial year was reduced by R500-million.
The capital expenditure of the City will focus on critical service delivery, revenue generation projects already in progress and the utilisation of national and provincial grants.
“Collections are around 84% compared to 90% budgeted, and the City intends to engage in aggressive credit control strategies to improve collections, on which further details will soon be announced. The multi-party coalition will give more information in this regard,” said Mbengashe.
Additional allocations have been made in the following critical areas: an additional R117-m has been allocated to promote the security of energy supply, with a further R40-m for maintenance and R77-m for new infrastructure.
In economic development, the City has received a grant of R58-m, which will fund job opportunities in the city.
For human settlement, there are allocations of R7-m and R10-m to deal with repairs and maintenance of Kwa-Thema and Wadeville Hostels, respectively.
An additional R11-m was allocated to deal with sinkholes to address safety risks for affected residents. An amount of R2-m was added to the budget to supplement the payment to the SPCA for operating the city’s pound services, which are insufficient to compensate them for the costs involved fully.
“Savings in various departments, including savings within the departments, are being used to address service delivery backlogs in the Department of Energy, including street lights, environmental resources, waste management, grass-cutting, tree maintenance, roads and stormwater maintenance and repairs,” said Mbengashe.
