DA – ‘All is not well with the budget’
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Ekurhuleni does not agree with the Ekurhuleni Metro's new budget for the next financial year.
They state residents who were hoping for improvement in the new financial year, which starts on July 1, will likely be disappointed.
Eddie Taylor from the DA says unemployed youths in the metro are unlikely to find local jobs during the next year as the ANC-led government has been unable to get the local economy to grow by more than 1.6%.
“Add the negatives such as load shedding and the forecast power shortages are likely to depress the economy even further, which can also lead to job losses,” states Taylor.
The DA’s plan of action will introduce support offices for small business development in the municipal service centres, in order to encourage entrepreneurs to start their own businesses.
“More bursaries and skills training will be made available,” states Taylor.
The party also states that residents who have been waiting 20 years for houses to be built by government will have to continue waiting according to the budget.
According to Taylor, the backlog has been estimated at over 200 000 housing units and with the population growing by 2.7% every year, the rate of providing housing units by government doesn’t meet the annual increase in demand.
“Residents will not be happy with the metro’s relatively low amount provided for repairs and maintenance.
The DA points out that the allocation for fixing broken assets needs to be 30% higher than what is in the budget.
According to the party, priority issues were not addressed in the budget such as:
Residents commented on the Addie’s Facebook page, voicing their opinion on the increased tariff rates.
- Kymon Giannakopoulos says, “For a government and metro who are pathetic at supplying service. It’s a no-brainer that they’ll try solve anything, by throwing money at it, while hiking tariffs up to sustain it. A clear cut case of a failing state through political megalomania.”
- Denis Mogensen: “They won’t stop until there is nothing left.”
- Amanda Stander: “Refuse removal: never gets collected on time, why do they want more money? Water: the most basic need of consumers, metro doesn’t fix leaking pipes, why should we pay more? Sanitation: how many complaints about blocked sewage lines that overflow into people’s yards and take forever to be fixed? Why should we pay more for services not rendered as they should be? Electricity: on the metro’s sliding scale of consumption, why should we pay even more, when we are already being milked dry in order to let the metro supply free and cheap electricity to others? You pay for what you get, why should we all pay for what we’re not getting?”
