Tempers frayed at public budget meeting
Another speaker vented his anger that the budget could be misleading
Hundreds of residents of Wards 10, 11, 12, 20 and 25 assembled at the Town Hall on Monday evening.
They responded to invitations by Emnambithi/Ladysmith Municipality to participate in a discussion around the Draft Budget process before recommendations are tabled for consideration at the next council meeting.
What would otherwise be termed an information-sharing consultative process mutated into a heated exchange between disgruntled residents and municipal officials.
Were it not for the unruffled disposition of Municipal Speaker Zehra Rassool, the meeting would have degenerated into a farce. Resident upon resident lambasted the proposed Draft Budget.
The majority of opponents of the draft were critical of the amount of money budgeted to service their areas as a reflection of the amount contributed from their respective areas.
A speaker highlighted the anomaly in the R800 million collected from the above-mentioned residents and only R15 million budgeted for upgrading in the CBD.
This, he argued, included R8 million for the Illing Road taxi rank. Many echoed his sentiments that the amount contributed was not a fair reflection of the amount set aside for service delivery.
Every speaker concurred that the upliftment and upgrading of facilities in the rural areas was a necessity, but that not enough was being exercised to collect revenue from those residents.
Another speaker vented his anger that the budget could be misleading. He questioned whether amounts specified for rural areas would indeed be used there.
He compared the progress made in Newcastle and enquired why our municipality could not learn from there.
Another speaker stated that there was only one municipal official he had confidence in, and that was the Municipal Manager. Whenever he phoned this manager, his request was attended to within a short space of time. But he received little or no joy from other officials. However, he questioned the need to plough fields over weekends. Was it to pay overtime, he asked.
Yet another irate member of the gathering shouted, “The municipality is milking us”, and demanded to know why verges are being mowed on a Sunday.
A lady stated that the amount allocated for an airfield was a pipe dream. Aerodromes in neighbouring towns, including Pietermaritzburg, have been a financial failure. Another interjected that even King Shaka Airport was forced to reduce international flights.
A businessman who feels very passionate about our town expressed disquiet at the amount he was charged for electricity. He said rates in Umhlanga were lower than in Ladysmith and wanted to know how that could be possible. The heart of our town’s economy is in the industrial area, not in shopping centres, he added.
A resident enquired if Leonardsville still featured as part of Ladysmith and complained bitterly that the councillor for that area was a total mystery.
Explanations tendered by the CFO of the municipality and another manager were rejected by the crowd. One official spoke about the historical imbalances and the need to address this. Municipal officials took several breaks to discuss measures to prevent a complete stalemate in discussions, to little or no avail.
An official from the Mayor’s Office tried to calm the situation by stating that the meeting had highlighted challenges in the collection of revenue from all parts of the municipality and it was imperative that services received be paid for.
Numerous business persons hinted that the time has come to pursue this matter via court action and / or to suspend the payment of rates. The assembly disagreed vehemently that the meeting table these concerns for consideration at the next council meeting.
The Speaker explained that due to time constraints, they had no choice but to forward the matter to council. Outside the meeting, some business persons felt that the matter had become a race issue.
There were many who favoured the idea of holding back rates if the municipality continued with its budget.
Another felt that the absorption of Indaka Municipality would exacerbate the situation of revenue versus service delivery.
The next council meeting will be followed with intense interest to see if the public participation meeting truly reflected the voices of concern expressed by Ladysmith business.
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