uMngeni opposition parties miffed at not getting adjustment budget on time

Opposition parties in uMngeni Municipality have accused the DA of political exclusion.

This comes after the adjustment budget for the 2022/2023 financial year was approved through a vote on Tuesday during a full virtual council sitting.

The ANC and EFF, who voted against its approval, said the report was not sent to them on time and they were not given a chance to discuss it within their caucuses.

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The approved adjustment budget’s operating revenue has been adjusted downward from R538 million to R519 million while operating expenses were also adjusted to R519 million from R537 million.

The opposition councillors said they were only aware of the how the budget had been adjusted when the mayor, Chris Pappas, was presenting his report.

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The councillors said the mayor’s report was not attached to the agenda they received and was only sent when they asked for it during the meeting.

EFF councillor, Dumisani Malevu said it was important for them to also be given the opportunity to caucus over the adjustment budget and make their input where needed prior to its being presented at council.

We were all confused when the mayor started presenting this adjustment budget and we asked the speaker, who said there was a mistake and sent it to us during the meeting. What is surprising is that DA councillors didn’t seem confused like us which was evidence that they had discussed this report [without] us. We rejected this adjustment budget because we didn’t know any-thing about the report and when we started asking questions we were shut down and the speaker said we should vote. They knew they had the majority votes and didn’t even take into consideration what we were raising.
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ANC caucus leader, Thulani Mthalane, said they were questioning the legitimacy of the adjustment budget.

Had we received the report prior to the meeting we would’ve … caucused on it. We went to the meeting and we couldn’t engage with the document but the the DA still went ahead with it. There’s a serious concern on why this report wasn’t shared with us on time.
Both political parties said they will be writing to the department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) and the National Treasury to report how the adjustment budget was approved.

The speaker, Janis Holmes confirmed that councillors did receive the report during the meeting.

The document was discussed at the Exco meeting and one of the ANC councillors wasn’t there. It always happened that councillors don’t get such documents prior to the meeting or the mayor’s report presentation but we are working on changing that and ensuring councillors get all documents on time.
Pappas said the first six months of the 2022/2023 financial year were high-paced with the capacity of the administration being tested, refined, and built.

Pappas said rates made up a significant part of their budget and they saw an increase in rates collection by R1,1 million.

He added there were areas and departments that needed attention including the supply chain department which he said was weak, filled with inefficiencies and is leading to overprices on many items.

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Pappas said the municipality is owed R280 million and the inability to effectively collect amounts owed to them and manage their debt had implications on service delivery.

The single biggest threat to the municipality is the high electricity losses. From July 2022 to January 2023 the municipality lost R18,6 million. Projections are that we will be close to R40 million in losses by the end of the financial year. More drastic action may be required if we are to protect our municipal assets and ensure that we remain financially viable.