Ngwathe’s municipal council was to meet yesterday (as the Gazette went to press) to approve the new draft budget. This draft will be subject to public discussion in the weeks ahead before being approved by the end of May. The Treasury recommended that tariffs rise by 4.9 per cent, except for water and electricity, which would rise further – after higher bulk price increases by Rand Water Board and Eskom.

The DA caucus spokesperson on municipal finance, Mr Arnold Schoonwinkel, told the Gazette the draft figures are at last based on actual amounts received and not – as in the past – on the figures billed previously. “This (new) approach by the acting CFO is sensible,” said Schoonwinkel, adding that the DA had long been asking for this. “It stops Ngwathe’s budget from annually overstating its expected revenue.”

Schoonwinkel said the draft revealed a bleak picture. “Revenue items are expected to decline, leaving Ngwathe with an unfunded (and therefore unlawful) budget again: a total deficit of over R100m.”

He said all parties agreed that one obvious remedy was to increase income from non-performing assets (e.g. Mimosa Gardens) and the other to increase the scandalously low collection rate (recently running as low as 40 per cent of billings).