Clr Victor Penning, a Kensington resident and a member of the finance and municipal public accounts committee, said, “The MMC said we live in a city that works. Is this really true?
“What about the huge number of traffic lights that do not work? What about the 20 to 25 percent of street and public lights that do not work? What about the multitude of missing or damaged traffic signs, street names and markings and Armco barriers?” he asked
Clr Penning also raised concern about potholes and condition of road surfaces, illegal dumping, water leaks, power outages and service from the CoJ call centre.
“The question is will this massive budget effectively address the poor service delivery? MMC Makhubo also stated Joburg a City@Work. I would estimate that the average productivity of Joburg’s staff across the full spectrum lies between 25 and 35 percent, although there are some remarkable exceptions. So is Joburg really at work? There are conscientious and competent employees, and for that we are grateful, but the average impression residents get is that many employees are disinterested, often discourteous and neither managed nor held accountable,” said Clr Penning.
He said the operating budget of R36.7-billion could be directed to address the shortcomings in Joburg’s service delivery but questioned if it will it in terms of this budget.
“Some questions I must ask are, are we tripling the number of urban, building and environmental inspectors, thereby increasing income from fines? Will our visible service delivery staff be supervised and held accountable for their performance? Will our meter reading and billing services be efficient and accurate? The operating budget’s revenue is based on a revenue collection rate of 95 percent although during the current financial year we are only achieving about 90 percent.
“By approving this budget the city will effectively be entering into a performance contract with the citizens of Johannesburg. Will we be forced to breach this contract should our revenue collection consistently fall short of the budgeted target?” asked Clr Penning.
He added that the DA finds an increase to some of the tariffs which are substantially above inflation unacceptable.
He added that councillors had no opportunity to make inputs regarding spending priorities, except for Integrated Development Plan (IDP) inputs for the capital budget.
He declared the budget one that was imposed and not democratically developed.
The EXPRESS forwarded an enquiry to Mr Nthatisi Modingoane and Mr Gabu Tugwana, from the CoJ, and Ms Zoleka Zide, the spokesperson for the MMC, on June 9. Deadline for comment was June 11. At the time of going to print, no comment had been received.
@JoziReporter
