Endumeni under fire for proposing ‘unfunded budget’
He added that the Eskom debt should be a priority, yet it is not even mentioned - instead there is an increase in security funds.
Endumeni council’s ‘coalition’ arrangement was thrown into turmoil when the 2023/24 budget was not passed on deadline day, May 31, at a tumultuous council meeting.
The DA and ANC rejected the budget, calling it a mess and unfunded, and Mayor Ndlovu now has seven days (from May 31) to come back with a report on a revenue plan.
The DA’s Cllr Saleem Abdool said ‘the public should know that the DA wants out of the coalition with the IFP because of the allegations of maladministration, accompanied by what appears to be the IFP leadership’s failure to run Endumeni’.
“We do not welcome this budget – the IFP’s failure to rein in poor service delivery and misconduct among the municipality’s employees is outrageous,” said Abdool.
He added that, as councillors, they have not had a report of revenue collection for the past 24 weeks, yet the revenue department says that everything is in order but are facing deficits of an unfunded budget.
“Where is the Eskom payment plan?
“We defaulted in the first payment arrangement with Eskom (the Eskom debt is said to be R91 million).
“Municipal funds have been wasted fruitlessly, including the forensic investigation paid for by the municipality of R131,000 for the forensic services company, only to have those employees who were found guilty brought back to work,” explained Abdool.
He concluded by saying that suspended employees are never charged; some are paid their packages, only to be re-employed, and thousands of rands are wasted on legal fees. “We will not associate ourselves with such poor leadership. We are being raped here and we urge the municipal manager to start looking into all the departments and go back to the drawing board.”
The ANC’s Cllr Sduduzo Mdluli was equally critical.
“Sitting here discussing an unfunded budget is a waste of time – we all heard from Treasury that it is unfunded. Will the municipality be able to collect revenue when so much of its expenditure is on unnecessary things?” questioned Mdluli.
He added that the Eskom debt should be a priority, yet it is not even mentioned – instead there is an increase in security funds.
“There is no mention of the mayoral hired car; the hiring of vehicles is a non-essential expenditure. We are meeting at a time when there is no economic growth in the country, yet the municipality is prioritising unnecessary expenditure,” lamented Mdluli.
He added that for the first time in years, the municipality will not be receiving any grant for electrical programmes.
“The increase in tariffs will have an adverse impact on our residents. A realistic budget needs to be done, as expenditure is directed to non-essential items,” concluded Mdluli.
IFP reacts
IFP councillor and caucus chairperson Xolani Msezane echoed how disappointed they are that the budget was not adopted.
“The longer we take to adopt the budget, the more delays in service delivery.
“It must be noted that all the debts mentioned by the ANC and DA are inherited debt from the previous council, and it’s also not the first time that the budget will be unfunded,” said Msezane.
He said ‘it was shocking to hear our councillors saying they won’t adopt the budget because at the last budget steering meeting, they were all in agreement with the adoption of the budget’.
“We are aware of the increasing Eskom debt. That is why we have asked the municipal manager to write to the National Treasury and for the debt to be removed; it has been done before and it can be done again.
“More needs to be done by council in collecting revenue from its clients because government institutions and commercial businesses owe the municipality, just like households,” he explained. Msezane said that Mayor Ndlovu will have the report (requested by the DA) ready within the given period and pleaded for ‘council to work together in fixing all the loopholes’.
“We will have a steering budget meeting as a council, where we will discuss and amend the budget so that service delivery is not compromised. I hope that in the coming council meeting, the budget will be adopted,” he concluded. (See inside for budget reaction from the Endumeni Residents & Civic Association)
