Dear MyPE
The majority of residents in Nelson Mandela Bay will find themselves in the financial doldrums after the R12 billion 2019/20 budget for the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro was passed.
This uncosted and disingenuous budget will have a massively negative financial impact on the residents of the Metro.
The budget has not been properly costed or honestly presented for public and business consideration. Recent and now successful appeals to councillors to simply pass the budget for the sake of passing it will result in many unintended consequences.
The current woeful performance on capital expenditure by the ANC/UDM/EFF coalition of corruption, if allowed to continue, will simply mean that ratepayers and businesses will pay more for rates and services and get less service delivery.
It has now emerged that the ostensible opposition to the budget by the Patriotic Alliance’s Cllr Marlon Daniels was not so much about its content or provisions but merely all about leveraging himself a mayoral committee seat. Cllr Daniels has become a journeyman mayoral committee member through his brand of transactional politics of the stomach. Now that Cllr Daniels has got what he ultimately wanted, the budget has now passed before the looming deadline of 30 June 2019.
The DA opposed the budget due to the enormous rates increase against the current economic climate. We don’t believe the capital expenditure predictions in the budget are realistic especially when compared to current abject spending performance that effects every resident of the Metro. This kind of woeful expenditure performance will negatively affect service delivery and the Metro will ultimately lose unspent grant funding which directly effects all of us.
Regarding the budget the DA also believes:
- It does not make adequate provision for community and social infrastructure improvements;
- The IDP was not comprehensive or conclusive and those public engagements that did take place were based on incorrect budget predictions, especially related to the rates proposal. The rate paying citizens who are destined to benefit 9% from a “pro poor budget of 91%-9% split” will have to shoulder the burden through rates and services increases;
- The budget allocation for compensation of employees is in excess of the treasury limit;
- Ratepayers will have to cough up much more to subsidize the poorer areas. Redressing past injustices is a priority but cannot be the sole responsibility of the rate paying population which also includes businesses. Continued extra inflationary increases will have counter intuitive or negative consequences to the Economy of the city and our already critical unemployment levels will escalate dramatically; and
- Infrastructure maintenance budget provision( of around 3%) is well below the recommended 8%. This means that so called previously advantaged and developed wards or suburbs will become progressively less well serviced due to infrastructure decay and collapse.
The DA as the official opposition commits itself to do everything in our power to ensure that the citizens of this city will get the services that they deserve and that the ratepayers, who are being burdened with beyond inflationary increases, will at the very least get value for their precious money.
The oversight role of the opposition is crucial to ensure proper service delivery and accountability from the current coalition of corruption government and we will conduct this oversight vigorously.
Regards
Athol Trollip Cllr
DA NMB Caucus Leader
NMB Communications
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