KDM holds back on grant spending

None of the money allocated to the KwaDukuza municipality for sports and recreation has been spent – and time is running out.

Each municipal department is allocated a grant from the provincial treasury to improve infrastructure during the financial year (from April-March). If the grant funding is not used, the money must be given back to treasury.

While community members have become familiar with the excuse that the municipality does not have money to sort out problems, important sectors dealing with electricity, library services and internet, sports and recreation as well as beach rehabilitation have been neglected even though funds have been made available.

Other departments that have barely touched their budgets are the electrical department, which only used one per cent of its grant, library and internet services used 18 per cent and beach rehabilitation, a much-needed service, has only spent 10 per cent of its grant.

In total, about 69 per cent of the available grant funding had been spent.

Executive mayoral committee member, Councillor Malcolm Hubner said that the money had not been spent because there is a lack of manpower.

“The document was detailing expenditure from last year April to last year October. Some sectors spent zero per cent of their grant funding in six months.

“It begs the question if they would spend all their grant funding in the five remaining months that were left in the financial year. An updated expenditure list should be discussed in the next council meeting sometime this month.

“The money is there for the jobs to be done but there is no one to do it. There are so many electricity issues that need to be sorted out but there is no one to do it. The beach infrastructure is a major problem, we have pathways that are falling apart, toilets that are not properly maintained. It is not that there is no budget, it is that the money is not being used,” he said.

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