An adjusted budget of more than R1,7-billion was tabled and approved by Ugu District Municipality last week.
Councillors resolved to approve the unfunded budget of R1 072 734 516, adding that a lot of effort had been put into cutting unnecessary expenditure.
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However some councillors said the financial situation at Ugu was dire and that they could not see the municipality coming back from the recent adverse opinion given by the Auditor-General.
“Ugu has a huge cash flow problem, and we don’t know whether it will recover,” said one.
DA councillor George Henderson asked why there was no letter from the treasury department commenting on the budget, to which council speaker Ntombifikile Gumede replied that the letter had not been received.
More than 10 councillors did not show up for the discussions.
These councillors tendered their apologies, citing various reasons for their absenteeism, while others left before the discussion was concluded.
Questions were also asked about where the money would come from as Ugu was reportedly running at a deficit.
Mayor Mondli Chiliza said he believed that under the circumstances, municipal manager DD Naidoo and CFO Simon Dlamini had tried their best to cut costs on non-core items.
“We have tried to cover everyone’s concerns in the budget, and have also tried to cut costs where we could to be able to direct funds to infrastructure maintenance, which is good, ” he said.
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