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City of Tshwane granted more time to sort out its budget after mayor mess
The metro has been given until mid-April to pass the budget to avoid being placed under administration.
A general view at the City of Tshwane council meeting on 24 November 2021, in Pretoria. Picture: Gallo Images/Beeld/Deaan Vivier
The City of Tshwane has been handed another lifeline by Gauteng provincial Treasury to pass the metro’s adjustment budget.
The Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality is yet to table the mid-year budget as well as adjusted service delivery and budget implementation plan due to the city being without an executive mayor.
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The city has failed to elect a new mayor on two occasions since the resignation of Congress of the People (Cope) member, Dr Murunwa Makwarela, on 10 March due to brewing tensions among the political parties in council.
This has delayed the passing of the adjustment budget, which determines how much more residents will pay for water, electricity, sewage and waste removal, after having missed the first deadline of 28 February.
‘Expenditure incurred’
The metro now has been given until 14 April to pass the budget to avoid being placed under administration.
“Initially, the city’s application for an extension was granted until Friday, 24 March, however, when it became apparent that the deadline would not be met, the city wrote again to the provincial Treasury to request another extension,” City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said in a statement on Sunday.
“In granting the extension, the province set strict timelines for the city to implement revenue measures against defaulters whose accounts are in arrears and prioritise councillors who owe the city more than R2 million as well as municipal officials who are in arrears. The city debtors book has increased to a staggering R20 billion.”
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Bokaba said the city now has to ensure that a mayor is urgently elected and the members of the mayoral committee (MMC) are appointed so that the budget report can be tabled for council approval to comply with the deadline.
“The implications of not tabling the adjustment budget are that the city cannot move funds to cover the shortfall on key service delivery areas such as waste collection watchmen and rudimentary services, and any expenditure incurred will be unauthorised.
“Despite the challenges experienced in council in the recent past, the city has continued to render service delivery to its customers. The city remains confident that it will comply with the directives of the provincial Treasury,” he said.
Speaker motion of no confidence
The Tshwane council will convene a special sitting on Monday afternoon to vote on a motion of no confidence against the speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana.
The motion was brought by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and its coalition partners.
The multi-party coalition were aggrieved by Ndzwanana’s decision to postponed the election of a new mayor in order to seek legal opinion on the status of a Cope councillor, who is alleged to have two ID numbers as well as a criminal record.
The political parties argued that the speaker’s move was of unlawfully and accused him of working with the ANC and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to deliberately sabotage the Tshwane council to gain control of the city through the back door.
According to the coalition, Ndzwanana had refused to place the motion on the agenda for Tuesday’s mayoral election.
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However, city manager Johann Mettler accepted for the matter to be heard Monday.
“The motion arises directly from a petition that the multi-party had signed by the majority of councilors that these parties collectively provide.
“The reason why this is important is because the speaker has become the instrument of the ANC and the EFF to ensure that the vote to elect a new mayor does not take place now that the multi-party coalition has reconstituted its majority.
“Last week, such a petition was sent to the speaker and he simply ignored it especially given that the motion to remove him put him in a position of a conflict of interest,” ActionSA national chairperson, Michael Beaumont said in a video.
Ndzwanana was elected as speaker on 14 March, beating ActionSA councillor Kholofelo Morodi by 105 votes.
