Mayor delivers Soma speech for Thaba Chweu
The refurbishment of the waste water treatment works in Lydenburg, Sabie and Graskop will be a priority.
At the State of Municipal Address (Soma) in the town hall on September 13, Friddah Nkadimeng, the executive mayor of the Thaba Chweu Local Municipality (TCLM), announced the budget for 2023/24.
She explained the successful projects TCLM was involved in during 2022/23.
• As part of the 2023/24 budget, R1.5m will be set aside for skills and capacity-building programmes for both officials and councillors.
• R1.1m is earmarked for the Employee Wellness Programme and the Social and Transversal Programmes. TCLM employees utilised some of these funds on
September 4 when they attended the intermunicipal games in Gaborone, Botswana.
• R2m has been set aside for spatial planning and the local economic development sector. This will ensure that the correct title deeds will be handed out to the low-cost housing community and that proof of ownership is given.
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• R1.25m has been allocated for local tourism support projects. A total of R500 000 is allocated for the development of informal traders’ (hawkers) stalls. This is a multiyear project covering every trading zone in the municipality.
• R22.8m has been allocated to the Municipal Infrastructure Grant. It will include projects in Matibidi (Didimala Village) and De Clerq, Potgieter and Voortrekker streets in Lydenburg. This amount will also cover the patching of potholes. The paving of First Street in Ext 2, Mashishing, and Lange Street, and
the refurbishment of De Clerq Street has been completed.
• R80m has been set aside for water and sanitation projects through the Municipal Water Infrastructure Grant and TCLM’s own funding.
• The refurbishment of the waste water treatment works in Lydenburg, Sabie and Graskop will be prioritised. It includes maintenance on various boreholes and sewer reticulation in Ext 8, Mashishing. The sewer reticulation project in Coromandel and
Ext 7 has been finalised.
• R5.5m has been allocated for the electrification of 220 households in Mashishing, Ext 9, Marikana and Manjeje. It includes the installation of street lights, traffic lights, overhead lines, electrical poles, repairs at the Duma Substation and the procurement of a cherrypicker.
Nkadimeng said the executive has committed itself to taking advantage of the debt relief programme by the National Treasury with the aim of seeking relief on a portion of its Eskom debt.
