HIGHVELD – The Govan Mbeki Municipality has passed the budget with a deficit R 309-million that is unfunded.
The 2019/20 budget amounts to R142-million, of which R101-million is funded by grants. Capital items budgeted from internal funds amounts to R41-million.
During the tabling of the budget, Ms Thandi Ngxonono, Executive Mayor for Govan Mbeki Municipality (GMM), said the budget is faced with challenges in terms of finance which to the greater extent is caused by the culture of non-payment by the residents and businesses alike.
She said the biggest challenge of revenue is the generation, mainly because a huge number of the residents, including businesses in GMM, are not paying for the services that the municipality renders to them.
“It is more dismaying that there are big companies that are not paying for the services, yet they run their businesses on our shores and in the process, make huge profits.
“We have subsequently established and revamped the Revenue Enhancement Committee and the Revenue Recovery Committee, in order to implement a radical revenue-generating plan which is currently yielding the desired results, however, not as quickly as it should.
“These committees have been beefed up and bolstered through the establishment of the Financial Recovery Plan which we believe is credible and should, therefore, extricate the municipality from the financial challenges that we face.
“We are therefore calling on our people to join hands with us and begin to take the issue of paying for their services seriously.
“It should be particularly mentioned that this budget is in line with the GMM Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and captured all the inputs and contributions submitted by the people during the consultative meetings.”
Organisation Undoing Tax Abuse (Outa) slammed the budget and said it doesn’t plan to pay the Eskom and Rand Water debts, but it ups the salary bill by R100-million.
Outa wrote to GMM demanding that the council review and set aside the resolution of the passed budget 2019/20 and the updated IDP, and restart the public participation process to include proper community participation.
Mr Michael Holenstein, manager of Outa’s Local Government Division, said: “This is unacceptable and a clear indication that the municipality is not interested in the public’s input and concerns.
“This budget was hidden from public view and makes no attempt to acknowledge the law or the municipality’s financial realities.
“We demand that the IDP and budget meetings are advertised and residents are given at least 14 days’ notice to participate. Should the municipality fail to provide the public with a fair participation process and a constructive budget that can turn the municipality around, we will consider approaching the courts for remediation.”
Outa said although the budget includes claims that it was drafted in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), its regulations and the National Treasury’s MFMA Circulars 93 and 94, effectively ignores these.
“The MFMA Municipal Budget and Reporting Regulations, issued in 2009, provide a clear and detailed format for municipal budgets and specify the information to be included.
“This is not optional for municipalities, it’s the law.
“However, GMM’s budget completely ignores all this and does not include the specified budget tables.
“The Treasury’s circulars emphasise that municipalities may not adopt unfunded budgets (they may not budget for a deficit), they must ensure that budgets include payment arrangements for Eskom debts, and focus on collecting revenue owed to them.”
The Democratic Alliance in GMM opposed the approval of the 2019/2020 budget. The party said beyond the Eskom and Rand Water debt that plagues this municipality, the unfunded budget contains an R309-million deficit which is currently predicted to remain unfunded at least for the next three financial years.
Ms Ciska Botha, DA caucus leader, said it becomes more and more evident with the turn of each financial year that the IDP budget consultations are done with the public merely for compliance sake.
She said the community has numerously and clearly expressed that it does not support what the Executive Mayor ironically called “the people’s budget” in her speech.
“In addition to this, to the council there has been no word communicated of the financial turnaround strategy that would improve the generation of revenue compiled by the Imbizo held at Badplaas and discussions with the national or provincial treasury on how this municipality will keep head above water and deliver services to its residents.”
It is only logical that the public should have been consulted about this strategy, and that the budget, as well as the IDP, be informed by this important document which the ANC proudly speaks of but can never provide when demanded to do so.
“The council has unfairly chosen to raise electricity tariffs at the roof of what has been suggested by NERSA. Property rate tariffs have also been raised while many residents have been waiting for the outcome of their valuation objections since 2016.”
