Ms Caroline Morajane, mayor of the Lekwa Municipality, delivered the municipal budget speech at the Standerton Town Hall on 28 May.
Ms Morajane gave the municipal overview including the Lekwa population of 115 662, the unemployment rate of 25,9 %, youth employment rate of 35,2 %, population with matric at 35,8 %, matric pass rate in 2013 was 78,5 % and the HIV prevalence rate is 19,9 %.
She said the average household income annually is R88 440 and the 40 % poorest people of Lekwa municipality share 8,7 % of the municipality’s total income.
The municipality contributed 10,4 % to the district’s economy.
Ms Morajane mentioned that Lekwa is ranked third highest after Steve Tshwete Municipality and Govan Mbeki Municipality in basic service delivery.
Water provision by communal stand pipe is 97 %, sanitation 94,9 %, electricity 88,6 % and refuse removal 82,2 % .
She acknowledged that there have been some serious challenges with regards to water and electricity over the last few months and that waste removal is not as well as they would like it to be.
The crisis regarding the state of our roads, especially Nelson Mandela Road, Walter Sisulu Drive and other streets will be attended to to during the course of the year.
She also mentioned the critical areas which are water and electricity provision, sanitation, job creation and integrated human settlements.
“Two turbine raw water pumping units that were procured last year to abstract water from the river to the treatment plant were installed and commissioned during December 2013,” she said.
She also said an additional four turbine pumping units have been ordered for refurbishing the Standerton Water Treatment Works, which will be installed by the end of July.
The replacement of the AC pipes to PVC pipes around the industrial area is ongoing, but will be completed by the end of June.
The water rising main project has been completed.
The construction of the 10 mega-litre reservoir is at an advanced stage and is planned to be completed before the end of July.
Altogether 21 bore holes will be installed in the rural areas by the end of June.
“At a more operational level, 1 165 water meters have been removed from the yards and the programme to deal with all water meter related problems is ongoing, in some rural communities where there is water shortages, water is supplied daily, using water tankers,” she said.
She also said that in Ward 9,12 and 13, which are more rural in nature, 210 sanitation toilets will be installed by the end of July.
The refurbishment of the sewer treatment plant is at an advanced stage and completion is planned for the end of July, the upgrade phase of this project is scheduled for September.
She continued to say that 10 high mast lights were erected and commissioned, 1 500 street lights have been repaired and 24 new service connections done.
“Ninety three new prepaid electricity meters were installed as per application by our consumers and the electrification of 50 pre-1994 housing stock will be completed by 30 July,” she said.
More community facilities have been built and some have been upgraded including halls, sports facilities and parks.
Up to 250 jobs were created through the Expanded Public Works Programme and 35 new
which has since collapsed, will be fast-tracked over the next few months.
There is an amount of R300 000 available for bursaries for external students.
Three finance interns are currently in service at the municipality, 38 learnerships for the employed, 12 learnerships for the unemployed, 11 apprenticeships and 29 employees attending various skills programmes have been undertaken.
The following human settlements projects having been successfully implemented for the 2013/14 financial year: construction of 34 community residential units at Sakhile Hostel and construction of 289 houses under the Informal Settlements Upgrading Programme.
The Department of Human Settlement has allocated the following housing projects to the municipality; 500 houses in Ext 8, valued at R58 million, 150 houses built as free standing units, 350 high density double story buildings, 230 government subsidy houses in various wards valued at R14 million, servicing of 100 sites for R21 million and R87 milllion for upgrading informal settlements, to be shared among 45 municipalities.
Ms Morajane mentioned that the municipality has 15 functional ward committees.
She said the following established structures will ensure accountable and transparent government: a Municipal Public Accounts Committee, an Audit and Performance Audit Committee, an internal audit plan and a fraud and anti-corruption strategy.
There is a decline in the municipality’s revenue base, where a strategy has been developed to turn the situation around.
Lekwa obtained a qualified audit outcome in the 2012/2013 financial year and efforts must be redoubled to obtain a clean audit for 2013/2014.
She indicated that the municipality’s income has grown to R141 million, which is projected to increase with R51 million in 2014/2015 and with R138 million in 2016/2017 to reach R297 million.
Expenditure however has also increased.
An revenue collection rate of about 63% was averaged in the past financial year.
The municipality will focus on three principles to reduce the deficit namely reduce expenditure to a minimum without compromising service delivery, moderately increase tariffs to cover operational cost and improve revenue collection rate.
Lekwa will collect revenue in the 2014/2015 financial year from sale of electricity (R227 million), assessment rates (R52 million), sale of water (R40 million), sewer (R24 million) and refuse removal (R13 million).
The proposed tariff increase is:
• electricity 7,39%
• water 7,5%
• sewerage 7,5%
• cemeteries 7,5%
• rental of facilities 7,5%
• property rates will be advertised
The anticipated revenue is R490 million and anticipated expenditure R683 million.
In reply to the budget speech, the DA said that unless the necessary will is shown by the mayoral committee, Lekwa would continue a downward spiral of poor service delivery and ever increasing debt levels to Eskom and the Department of Water Affairs.
Mr Pierre Schnetler, DA councillor, commented on the staff costs which had been increased by 20%, from R113 million to R137 million.
The increase is related to new appointments and according to him should be administered according to competency and not political subservience.
He expressed his concern that the budget for electricity, water and refuse removal is to run at a deficit of R28,7 million.
According to him the mayor and mayoral committee should have the political will to terminate and prosecute non-payers and those who bridge electricity.
The increase in the provision for bad debts from R33 million to R94 million re-enforced the above.
He congratulated the Chief Financial Officer, Mr Eduard le Roux, on the preparation of a budget which reflected Lekwa’s financial position.
Mr Rosier de Ville, DA councillor, said the DA was happy that the budget was set out according to the exact amount and where it will be spent.
For certain services no funds are available and in the past the councillors were told there is enough money to deal with everything.
