We take a look at the news you might have missed coming from the City of Johannesburg this week.
Firstly, a service delivery unit to track various infrastructure projects across the City of Johannesburg will be set up in July, as the new budget kicks in. Joburg City’s manager, Dr Ndivho Lukhwareni said the unit will be based in his office and will be an additional independent oversight when projects are being implemented.
This follows after R66 million had already been paid for the upgrade to Eldorado Park’s substation but it was found that no work of that value was done.
The unit will now help the City evaluate the quality of the expenditure, making sure no shoddy work is being done.
READ: New service delivery oversight unit to keep an eye on Joburg projects
After a second meeting on the City’s next budget, councillors have decided to amend the tariffs and budget for the 2018/19 financial year beginning on 1 July. After initially rejecting the tariff increase, the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) recommended changes to be made before accepting the increases.
Joburg’s EFF leader, Musa Novela, said the party wants the water and sanitation tariff to increase by 7,17 per cent instead of the original increase of 7,37 per cent.
Novela also suggested that the electricity increase is lowered to 13,2 per cent instead of the original increase of 14,4 per cent.
The amended tariffs will now have to appear in a new report that will be tabled in council on 8 June and the City will need to finalise the budget and tariffs before the end of the month.
READ: Joburg’s budget still not passed as tariff increase to be lowered
Finally, negotiations are still in place as Metrobus employees affiliated with the Democratic Municipal and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (Demawusa) are on strike. https://twitter.com/JoburgMetrobus
READ: Metrobus strike, negotiations continue
