The local Democratic Alliance (DA) released a statement saying they will be writing to the National Treasury, the Auditor General and provincial authorities to inform them that the manner in which the Mogale City Local Municipality (MCLM) budget was passed on Friday, 6 March was unconstitutional.
The statement sent by DA Mogale City Constituency Head, Jahno Engelbrecht, Member of Provincial Legislature (MPL) explained what had happened.
It said in November 2019 the budget had already been adjusted because the ruling party administration failed to listen to advice from the DA regarding the budget for 2019/ 2020.
On Friday, however, at the MCLM’s 25th special council meeting, a second adjustment budget was passed, according to the statement, despite the request from councillors to vote on the matter.
“The Speaker of Council, Noluthando Mangole then made a ruling in contravention of section 160 (2) and 160 (3) (b) of the Constitution,” the statement said.
“She unilaterally declared the item approved, despite an uproar from opposition parties, who were later removed from Council by security services.”
The statement also said that the recently elected Executive Mayor, Councillor Francis Makgatho told councillors if the second adjustment budget was not approved, the National Treasury would hold back the money needed to pay Eskom.
“The DA in council rejected this threat as it would not be held to ransom due to the poor financial management of the municipality.”
Engelbrecht added in the statement that the DA was concerned about contract services increasing, allegedly by R33 million, security services by R17 million, and rental for chemical toilets, water tanks and vacuum tankers by R13,7 million.
Another issue was that the repairs and maintenance budget had been cut by R7,7 million.
The Freedom Front Plus in Mogale City also released a statement saying they would request Gauteng Premier David Makhura and the MEC for the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Lebogang Maile to investigate what played out at the council meeting and to present a report on it.
“Mangole abused her position and also indicated that there were no objections to the proposed budget,” a statement by FF Plus councillor Tjaart Steenkamp read.
“The adjusted budget is unbalanced. An example is that salaries and contracted expenses together make up 51 per cent of the budgeted expenses at the expense of basic service delivery and infrastructure.”
Mogale City’s communications department was approached for urgent comment on numerous occasions, yet none was forthcoming.
