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Community Business Directory, Event Listings, News and Views from Gqeberha, Nelson Mandela Bay

Nelson Mandela Bay on track for another record year of under-expenditure

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Dear Editor

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMBM) is on track to repeat the mistakes of the 2023/2024 financial year, which saw a record loss of R580 million in conditional grant funding.

Today’s Council meeting revealed that the ANC-led administration has only spent 21.17% of its total capital budget halfway through the financial year. With less than six months left, the metro must now spend nearly 80% of its capital budget, which primarily consists of conditional grant funding from the National Fiscus.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) demands immediate action, starting with an urgent sitting of the Budget Monitoring Sub Committee, which has not met in six months.

We will also table a motion at the Budget and Treasury committee to increase transparency in Supply Chain Processes, particularly Bid Adjudication Processes, to facilitate faster tender awards.

Conditional grant funding is earmarked for infrastructure development, including road construction, electricity, water, and sanitation, as well as RDP housing. The consequences of failing to utilise these funds will not only cause the metro to miss out on crucial infrastructure development, but it will also deprive the local economy of direct investment, which could have created jobs.

The newly elected Executive Mayor, Babalwa Lobishe, seems to be continuing business as usual, without a clear plan to get NMB working again. This lack of change is unsurprising, given that the shift in political leadership merely rearranged the same ineffective individuals into different positions. Rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic would never have halted the metro’s further decline.

Our top priority is getting NMB working, especially considering it is one of the poorest metros in the country. Forfeiting hundreds of millions of Rands intended to support our communities and boost the economy is unacceptable.

The DA is in your corner fighting for you. Together we can get NMB working again.

Regards

Cllr Brendon Pegram
DA Member of the Budget and Treasury Committee

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