NEWCASTLE KZN: #SOTA2021 – How the municipality plans to cut costs
Dr Mahlaba confirmed some employees had claimed more than 100 hours of overtime, while others claimed to have worked 24 hours a day.
Newcastle Mayor, Cllr Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba delivered this year’s State of the Town Address (SOTA) on May 2 via various radio, television and social media streaming platforms.
Under the theme ‘The year of Charlotte Maxeke: promoting human rights in the Age of Covid-19’, Cllr Mahlaba spoke about the deadly global coronavirus pandemic and its subsequent effect on local economy.
“Our livelihood has certainly changed, and unfortunately not for the better…” said Cllr Mahlaba.
During his speech, Cllr Mahlaba mentioned the municipality had undertaken a situation analysis to assess its finances, infrastructure, human resources and capital program.
The priority for municipality, he added, was to service its debt with Eskom.
Also highlighted was the ‘aggressive cost cutting campaign’ – this is what it includes:
- Cutting unnecessary perks for officials
- Cutting cell-phone allowances
- Cutting unnecessary spending
- Drastically reducing unwarranted expenses
“The municipality further cut overtime in some areas, thus saving at least over R5-million a month from unwarranted overtime,” confirmed Cllr Mahlaba.
He confirmed that in the past, some employees had claimed more than 100 hours of overtime, while others claimed to have worked 24 hours a day.
“We were able to detect these municipal staff who were defrauding the municipality, through a thorough program. Such innovative systems to safeguard the financial affairs of this institution makes this municipality a trailblazer.”
With regards to increases, Cllr Mahlaba said electricity tariffs are expected to increase by 14.59% and said it must be noted this tariff increase is as per the NERSA guidelines of municipal tariff increase, as well as the application that will be submitted by the municipality to NERSA.
For the full article on #SOTA2021, make sure you pick up this week’s copy of the Newcastle Advertiser (May 7).
ALSO READ: Mayor says municipality will focus on ‘bread and butter’ issues
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