HIGHVELD – Emotions flamed up at the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) meeting held on Tuesday evening, 24 April in Secunda.
IDP meetings were held in Bethal and Evander as well and at the Secunda meeting, residents were not happy with the vague answers municipal officials gave about the budget.
Residents who attended the meeting in Secunda said they did not accept the budget as the information was too vague.
They wanted answers on numerous figures in the budget and Mr Dan Nhlapo, head of the technical department, said he would get back to them.
Residents also said the municipality is supposed, according to law, to publish the budget and information on their website 14 days prior to the meeting and this was not done.
“We were only informed about the meeting two days ago,” said a resident.
Also read: [VIDEO] Residents are upset at IDP meeting
They also pointed out that block tariffs for electricity was not taken into consideration in the budget.
Residents expressed their concerns over the enormous Eskom account that is currently at R500 million and Mr Nhlapo said people owe the municipality more than R1 billion.
According to the budget, the proposed tariff increases are 5.2 per cent for property rates, 6.84 per cent for electricity, 12.2 per cent for water and sanitation, 5.2 per cent for waste management and 5.2 per cent for miscellaneous.
Govan Mbeki Municipality has an operating deficit of R201.8 million for the 2018/2019 financial year.
Residents said the municipality is not allowed to budget for a deficit and Mr Jakes Mahlangu, acting chief financial officer (CFO), said they can budget for a deficit with a plan.
Residents then demanded to see the plan.
“You are acting against the law again because the public did not have access to such a plan,” said a resident.
Mr Nhlapo said he would clarify these issues with his seniors and get back to the public with answers.
Residents said if they look at what the municipality owes Eskom and Rand Water, they cannot see how they would ever be able to settle the debt.
“According to this budget, we are going down and next year we will probably go down even further, we are not getting ahead,” said a resident.
“We need to look at how you as a municipality is going to recoup this debt because it is just getting higher.”
Residents also complained that no maintenance is being done and that is the reason why so many sub stations blew up in the past few months.
They demanded lifestyle audits to be done on officials and asked why so many employees are necessary to run the municipality if they outsource many jobs anyway.
Residents asked whether the municipality is relying on Sasol to fix everything or whether they budget for maintenance.
“Let us not make reference to Sasol,” said Mr Nhlapo, but residents argued that Sasol pays for the roads, the grass cutting, and more.
“The municipality is abusing the gratitude of Sasol,” said a resident.
Residents demanded to know where all the money is going.
Mr Nhlapho said it was noted and he would look into it and give feedback within two weeks.
He took residents’ telephone numbers after the meeting and said the municipality needs residents’ help and input.
