The Tshwane metro is set to spend the largest slice of its revenue of about R27,6 billion on social development programmes. Mayor Kgosientsho Ramokgopa said in his State of the Capital Address recently that 80% of the budget will be invested in formally disadvantaged areas. He shared key highlights of the 2014/15 city budget, formally known as the Mid Term Revenue and Expenditure Framework (MTREF) on Monday, ahead of the budget speech scheduled for Monday 26 May, which was approved at a special mayoral committee held in Centurion.
The 2014 Budget Policy Statement will be tabled at a special council meeting on 26 May, under the theme Financing For Development Taking our Capital City Forward and contains an ambitious fiscal governance, revenue forecasts and capital investment partnerships aimed at bringing to life the commitments made during the State of the Capital Address in April this year.
”The MTREF is about ensuring that the city is financially sustainable and resilient and lays the first brick and mortar for our ambitious infrastructure and social development programme of rebuilding the capital city. To achieve this it has become necessary to embark on a balance sheet restructuring and optimisation programme to diversify sources of revenue, improve operational efficiencies, restructure our asset portfolio to support our growing infrastructure demands and our maturing social security interventions,” Ramokgopa said.
The 2014/15 MTREF presents a spending plan of approximately R27,6 billion, being R23,8 billion on the operating budget and R3,8 billion on the capital side, while budgeting for a surplus of R906,2 million from a zero surplus in the 2013/14 financial year. The surplus is aimed and maintaining high credit and liquidity ratings, cushioning against market shocks and creating room for flexibility and agility in times of investment opportunity.
The budget statement will provide a further breakdown of the proposed capital expenditure of approximately R12 billion over the 2014/15 MTREF be funded from a combination of grants, borrowings and own funding. Some of the main projects and IDP key focus areas in the 2014/15 financial year include among others:
– R40 million was allocated to health and social development towards a new clinic in Soshanguve, the new Gazankulu Clinic, towards upgrading and extension of Zithobeni Clinic and upgrading of ECD Centres and Daycare Centres.
– An amount of R851 million will be spent on housing and human settlement towards water provision, sewerage, low cost housing, roads and stormwater, project linked housing, acquisition of land and the Winterveldt land management programme.
– R150 million from the neighbourhood development partnership grant will be spent on the following Tsosoloso projects: Mabopane taxi rank, Saulsville walkways, Hammanskraal bridge, Seeiso streetscape, Atteridgeville bridge, Hammanskraal roads and the Solomon Mahlangu Museum.
– Approximately R1.1 billion will be invested in the water and electricity infrastructure including projects, such as reservoir extensions, new bulk infrastructure, replacement and upgrading of infrastructure and towards the Tshwane public lighting programme.
The city will equally table a rates adjustment which has in all instances been below average projections, while influenced by both internal and external factors such as a need to ensure sustainable service delivery and input costs from the suppliers, mainly Eskom and Rand Water. The expected increase from Eskom is 8.2% and 8.14% from Rand Water.
”In terms of expected rate hikes one of the principles that the city consistently applies when setting tariffs is the need to ensure that the services are affordable and promotion of access to basic services for everyone, including the poor,” Ramokgopa said.
The full council sitting will debate the budget statement on 29 May before adoption, thus setting it for implementation on 1 July when the financial year commences.
