VEREENIGING. – Under the theme “Celebrating the achievements of 20 years of democratic local government,” Sedibeng District Municipality’s executive mayor, Simon Mofokeng last week delivered the eagerly anticipated State of the District Address (SODA).
This was at the Vereeniging Civic Theatre where officials and the Sedibeng fraternity filled the venue to capacity. In his introduction, Mofokeng recognised how the Address had taken place only a day after Africa Day, saying that he wants to applaud the people of Sedibeng for their understanding that South Africa is not an island, but part of the broader continent.
During the address, Mofokeng mentioned that SDM had been working closely with the provincial government to better the lives of the people in the region. “There are two game changers that will stimulate the radical transformation of Sedibeng, the hydropolis and the agritropolis. The hydropolis entails using the advantage of the Vaal River and the agritropolis will see Sedibeng developed into a food basket for the entire Gauteng.
Mofokeng mentioned that, going forward, the region would focus on the 5 Rs plus two to bring forth development in the region, which include: reinventing the economy, renewing communities, reviving the environment, re-integrating the region, releasing human potential, promoting good governance and deepening democracy.
Talking about the budget, Mofokeng stated that the budget adopted was based on a total revenue of R359,8 million, adding that the budget remains highly constrained because of the unsustainable financial model of funding for district municipalities, based on powers and functions. “We are a district municipality with three local municipalities. Alone, each of us will feel disempowered to make a huge impact. Yet if we look at our budgets collectively, we see a significantly different picture. In the next
In the next year Midvaal will run an operational budget of R986m, Lesedi R588m and Emfuleni R5 billion. The capital budget of Midvaal for the next year is R90m, for Lesedi it’s R44m and for Emfuleni its R522m. If you add these to the Sedibeng budget, local government in this district will operate on a R7 billion budget and will expand R672 million on capital projects.
“The key challenge therefore remains, as we have often said in our motivations for a metro, is having a strategic alignment of our collective spend,” Mofokeng concludes.
