Her Worship, eThekwini Mayor Zandile Gumede tabled her maiden draft budget for the 2017/18 financial year at a full council meeting on Thursday, 30 March.
Both political and administrative officials will embark on a public participation process on the consolidated R45-billion draft budget, said Mayor Gumede.
This will allow for every resident to have the opportunity to scrutinise the budget, engage with officials and provide their input before the budget is finalised. Regional budget hearings will be held during April and May.
In her address Mayor Gumede referred to the budget as one that is in keeping with the promises made in her inaugural speech that would drive radical economic transformation, as well as fast-track service delivery in the city.
She said the budget had been developed to be balanced, realistic, sustainable, cost-reflective, affordable and taking into account the current economic climate.
“We believe that this is a very well balanced budget in terms of addressing the triple threat of poverty, unemployment and inequality while on the other hand also building business confidence in terms of retaining and expanding existing businesses and attracting new investors to help grow our rates base,” said Mayor Gumede.
The 2017/18 draft budget comprises of a capital budget of R7.5-billion and an operational budget of R37.5-billion, an increase from R 33.1-billion in the 2016/17 financial year, which funds the continued provision of services provided by the municipality.
The municipality said the growth of the operating budget is mainly due to the cost of addressing service delivery backlogs, the cost of bulk purchases of water and electricity, repairs and maintenance of infrastructure, impact of capital spending on operating expenditure and employee related costs as a result of filling of vacancies and provision for salary increase.
Read more here:
Part 1: ‘Balanced’ draft budget tabled by Mayor
Part 2: Drivers of city’s operating budget
Part 3: City budget pushes jobs agenda
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