Cut out the luxuries, Ward committee urges Council

An urgent call has been made for the Endumeni Municipality to trim luxuries on the draft budget including R800 000 for a new mayoral vehicle and R4 000 for an office chair, among other items.
A ward two committee, chaired by Councillor Anthon Raubenheimer, heard that the proposed 8% hike in rates could be trimmed to 6% or less if the new mayoral car could be cut from the draft budget,
When questioned, Councillor Raubenheimer said that he had received no official report as to why the top of the range Q7 Audi – that was involved in a serious accident in 2013 – needed to be replaced.
“The vehicle is only three-and-a-half-years old and we understand that the mileage is less than 60 000kms. The only thing we heard is that the Mayor said the Audi no longer ‘drives nicely’,”
He was disappointed that not one senior manager bothered to attend the ward committee to discuss the budget in terms of legislation.
“Every R300 000 of expenditure equals a 1% rates increase. If we can cut R800 000 we can bring the rates hike more or less into line with the inflation rate.”

‘Flawed’
Other so-called-luxuries, discussed by the ward committee, included an office chair budgeted for at over R4 000.
Councillor Raubenheimer said he wanted a mandate from his committee to reject the budget. This, he has received.
FC Bester, chairman of the Endumeni Residents’ Association, said he would organise residents to ‘toyi-toyi against the budget’ which he said was flawed as there was no feedback from the ‘well-paid officials’.

Councillor Raubenheimer said he was concerned that R10-million had been budgeted for bad debt while more should be done to recover monies outstanding to the municipality
“I asked for a 2015/16 budget but was given one from 2014. Is there anyone who actually knows what is going on?” he questioned.
He said theft of electricity, currently running at R1,8 million a month – despite the Council contracting an independent company to check all electricity meters at a cost of over R1-million a year – was completely unacceptable.
“Name and shame the guilty ones and publish their names. Charge them criminally. Why should we subsidise criminals?”
Councillor Raubenheimer said he was concerned that R10-million had been budgeted for bad debt while more should be done to recover monies outstanding to the municipality.
It was also heard that Dundee town contributed R40-million to the total budget, Glencoe R12,6-million, Wasbank R600 000, Sibongile R5,8 million and Sithembile R2,7-million.