THE Democratic Alliance has rejected the Hibiscus Coast Municipality’s budget which was presented at the council meeting on Tuesday.
DA spokesman George Henderson said the party is not happy with budget, even though it has been adopted by council.
“We feel that the budget presented is the same as the budget presented in the past. And we all know this budget has failed service delivery,” said Mr Henderson.
“R10-million is not enough to fix potholes and more money should be budgeted for this. The party also feels that too much money is used for wages, and too little for service delivery.”
Deputy mayor Johnny de Wet said it was disappointing that the opposition party saw fit to reject the budget when council had agreed on it prior to it being presented to the public.
“The first draft of the document was tabled on March 26, and has since been open for discussion and consultation with local stakeholders, including ratepayers and local communities.
“The municipality held seven cluster meetings in areas under its jurisdiction, and issues of concern raised by communities were taken into consideration when the final budget was drafted,” he said.
In a press briefing held after the meeting, HCM Mayor, Cynthia Mqwebu confirmed that the new budget had been adopted in council.
“The final proposed 2013/2014 budget is R732 525 215, comprised of an operating budget of R593 002 986, and a capital budget of R139 521 229,” she said.
“In terms of the housing rebate for indigent households, the threshold of the value of the property has increased from R290 000 to R320 000. As far as disaster relief is concerned, the budget allocation has increased from R160 000 to R365 000.
“The draft budget which was tabled in March had made provision for an increase of eight percent in electricity tariffs while awaiting determination by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa). The determination of seven percent as announced has required that budget projections be adjusted from R93 621 000 to R 93 383 000.
“Discussions are also ongoing with the Master Builders’ Association, a major stakeholder in the construction industry. As an interim measure, planning tariffs will not increase until those discussions are concluded. In addition, agreement has been reached on the procedure for payment of building plan tariffs,” she added.
“In line with our service delivery mandate, coupled with the unsatisfactory state of our road network, the budget has been increased from R8,5-million to R11,7-million on capital budget for resurfacing and gravel. The sum of R10-million has been allocated for the repair of potholes and the storm water allocation will increase from R1,5-million to R1, 9-million.”
