Tshwane ‘mini budget’ passed

The Tshwane metro which described its finances as bordering on the red line a few months ago, has passed the 2020/21 medium-term budget which it hopes would revamp its finances.

Unlike last year in February when Tshwane council political dispute saw the metro in limbo which led to it unable to approve its mid-term budget, all the political parties were able to come together to pass the region’s adjusted budget on Thursday during a council meeting.

Mayor Randall Williams vowed that the budget would be used as a re-prioritisation tool to accelerate service delivery and funding of existing projects and no new projects were added to it.

“Together with the accounting office, I will ensure that all departments manage their spending with their budget allocation in such a way that service delivery is implemented most cost-effectively,” Williams said.

“This adjustment budget is an important step in re-focusing the priorities of the administration towards core service delivery and ensuring that it stabilises the finances of the metro.”

Summary of the budget:

– Most of the money was diverted to the roads and transport, R105.3-million;

– R64 million to the financial services which among other things, was set to deal with a turnaround of municipal water services;

– R20.1-million went to the community and social development services for projects to address upgrading of the museum project, upgrade Pilditch stadium, fencing of facilities and improving community library services;

– R20-million went to the utility services for the allocation of the prepaid meter project for the replacement of electricity meters;

– R10-million was transferred to the health and social development shared services department for the purchase of information and communications technology equipment for the electronic management of health information;

– Regional operations and co-ordination: R8.5-million;

– Economic development and spatial planning: R7.3-million; and

– Group communication, marketing and events: R2-million.

Although the ANC welcomed the budget, councillor Terrence Mashigo said the party noted flaws within the budget.

Things also got heated up as EFF fought to have security personnel to be in-sourced by the metro.

EFF’s MoAfrika Mabogoane said the metro spent millions on contracts and outsourcing security companies that did not deliver good services.

Mabogoane wanted the adjusted budget to give a green light for the metro to hire its security employees.

“We propose that the metro deal with this. We know that while the metro approved a contract to have 4 500 security but on-site there were 1 500 which means there is fraud committed against the metro.”

Mabogoane threatened that should the matter of in-sourcing of security guards not be considered by council the party would take the matter to the Hawks for investigation.

“At this difficult juncture, the municipality should consider alleviating the pressure of municipality bills on residents. The residents of Tshwane are reeling from the effects of the devastating impact of Covid-19,” Mabogoane said.

“Households are under severe pressure due to job losses, closing down of businesses and mounting debt of water and electricity bills.”

DA’s coalition partners Freedom Front Plus party gave a stamp of approval to the budget saying it was balanced.

The party believed that a financial recovery was prudent following the dissolving of council for seven months in 2020.

“The metro’s finances are not where they should be. There are still leakages in the system due to failure of internal controls. We have taken a few steps forward and a few steps back.

“Taking a look at the debt collection there has been some improvement but still much more needs to be done,” said Awie Erasmus of Freedom Front Plus.

Do you have more information about the story?

Please send us an email to editorial@rekord.co.za or phone us on 083 625 4114.

For free breaking and community news, visit Rekord’s websites: Rekord East

For more news and interesting articles, like Rekord on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or Instagram