The City of Johannesburg’s next budget for the 2017/18 financial year was tabled in council by MMC for Finance, Dr Rabelani Dagada on 23 May.
The speech outlined the financial goals the City has made for the upcoming year, starting 1 July.
From the R47.3 billion operating budget and the R8.6 billion capital budget, the following was announced:
Infrastructure
A three-year capital budget appropriation of R27 billion will ease the 10-year R170 billion infrastructure gap. In the upcoming financial year, R5.2 billion will be spent on upgrading existing infrastructure and a further R3.3 billion is set aside for development of new infrastructure. R4.3 billion is given to address repairs and maintenance.
Services in informal settlements
R162.7 million is allocated to providing electricity and water connections to poor residents in informal settlements, while R482 million is set aside for Pikitup to clean the settlements over the next three years.
A total of 51 settlements, including Alex and Zandspruit, are due to be upgraded over the next two and a half years. After the R1.9 billion capital investment, residents will have updates to water, sanitation, roads, street names and electricity.
Housing
R66 million will help the Site and Service housing development approach, where land is fully provided with services where people can then settle and be given title deeds to build their own homes.
Entrepreneurship
The City plans on expanding its SMME hubs from seven to 14, totaling two hubs per region. The R16 million expense of these hubs will mean support to more than 1 200 businesses.
R8.5 billion has been set aside to invest in and facilitate small, medium and macro enterprises.
According to Dagada, the City will not announce projects to create jobs. Instead it will create an environment for economic growth, of which the City wants to see 5 per cent growth by 2021.
Roads
R105 million is allocated to install and repair broken traffic signals, including implementing the no-join policy at intersections. The City aims to see 90 per cent of traffic-related technical faults repaired within 24 hours in the next financial year. With R79 million set aside for the ‘war on potholes’, the City plans to repair 80 per cent of reported potholes within seven working days.
Health and Social Development
R118.6 million is set aside over the next two and a half years to extend the operating hours of five more clinics.
The City has also given R30 million to create revive drug rehabilitation centres across five regions, including Region B’s Westbury Clinic. In a bid to help displaced people, R9.5 million is set aside for shelters and the creation of a skills development centre.
Corruption
The office of the City Manager will receive a R956 million operating budget and a R236 million capital budget of which investigation fraud and corruption are one of the many programmes set out to commence.
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