The culture of non-payment for services has added to KwaDukuza municipality’s challenge of producing a balanced, credible and funded budget.
The budget was presented by councillor Jennifer Vallan at a special council meeting at the Stanger town hall on May 30 on behalf of acting mayor Dolly Govender, who was in Austria on council business, and was attended by the various political parties represented in the KDM council.
Tabling the budget Vallan, who chairs the finance portfolio committee, said the presentation came at an important time for KwaDukuza municipality as it embraced President Cyril Ramaphosa’s inauguration message which touched on a variety of topics important to South Africans including, corruption, poverty and the youth unemployment.
The municipality’s allocated budget for the 2019/20 financial year stands at R 2.15 billion with an estimated capital expenditure of R316 million comprising of new and rollover projects.
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Vallen said measures had been put in place to ensure full expenditure of the municipal’s capital spending in the new financial year.
This follows a recent finding by the auditor-general that KDM had only spent 30% of its capital budget in the last financial year.
Of the R20 million earmarked for electrical upgrades, only R3.6 million was spent by December.
Capital budget is money allocated for service delivery including projects ranging from infrastructure, electricity to building community halls.
Underspending on a capital budget can lead to under-delivery of basic services. One of the main reasons cited for the under-spending was the delay in finalising the procurement process for capital projects.
“As a council over the last few months we have raised concerns over poor capital expenditure and these concerns have been supported by our audit committee,” said Vallen who assured council members interventions had been put in place to turnaround the situation.
“We can no longer as elected officials accept excuses that the projects have been delayed due to supply chain management processes or lack of capacity within the business units. We want to see community concerns about street lights, potholes, road conditions and blocked drains being addressed through a pragmatic and radical approach which is overseen by the municipal manager.”
Vallen said an urgent focus was needed, particularly on the electrical business unit, which had come under fire during the recent IDP roadshow for its poor service delivery and non-performance.
“As part of our prioritisation of community needs the council will lobby for the establishment of a new police station in our area, including introducing mobile and satellite stations and fast track the building of new public schools to accommodate the growing community of Salt Rock, Ballito, Madundube, Etete and Shaka’s Head.
These issues have found expression in our 2019/20 budget and IDP and shows that as a council we take public participation seriously,” said Vallen.
Along with outlying projects and cost management solutions for the year ahead, KDM’s operational expenditure is projected at R1.8 billion Property rate increases will amount to eight percent in the 2019/20 financial year while refuse removal charges will increase by six percent.
Electricity will increase by 1.5 percent for domestic customers with conventional meters, eight percent for customers with prepaid meters and 13.07 percent for customers in all other categories.
The budget was approved by all political parties except the Democratic Alliance (DA) which rejected it, saying residents simply could not afford the increases given the tough economic climate.
Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader Madhun Sing said the above-inflation increase would have detrimental effects on consumers and the economy.
Inkatha Freedom Party’s (IFP) Moosa Motala added that budget spending needed to be monitored to ensure that all money allocated for the financial year was spent wisely.
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