Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Member of the Mayoral Committee for Human Settlements, Councillor Thembinkosi Mafana said the Metro is working hard to spend 40 percent of the R361 million Informal Settlements Upgrading Grant (ISUPG) in an effort to accelerate essential service delivery and stop underspending.
Councillor Mafana was speaking at a Human Settlements Standing Committee ISUPG spending site visit programme that started on Monday, 16 September 2024.
The site visits form part of the MMC and the standing committee oversight responsibility for the current financial year. The MMC said the Metro was working closely with senior officials and project managers to make sure that spending and the quality of work tally with the timeframes stipulated in the process plan.
“We want to push all our efforts to spend at least 40 percent of the allocated funds by December 2024 break so that by January reopening we accelerate performance even more,” he said.
The standing committee on Monday visited a number of active sites that are funded under the ISUPG like the Arlington Landfill site fencing that has been funded for R15 million, servicing of sites for housing delivery funded for R50 million, roads and storm water infrastructure and electrification of shacks and temporary houses. This grant covers a number of deliverables that form part of the holistic human settlements. This includes servicing sites, relocation of
communities from vulnerable areas, provision of services like water, electricity and sanitation to development of parks and creation of a safe, sustainable environment.
“We have decided to follow the money. Ours must not end at approving budgets at standing committee and Council. We must follow through in spending, quality of work and monitor adherence to timeframes,” said MMC Mafana.
MMC Mafana said the ISUPG site visits will from now be a standard item in the Human Settlements standing committee financial year plan. “Our people are living in distress in flood plains and other unliveable conditions, we must then move with speed in relocating them and provide them a decent life,” said MMC Mafana.
Last financial year, 2023/4 the Metro was allocated R333 million and managed to spend within the stipulated timeframe R317 million, which is 95 percent of the allocated funds.
On Tuesday, 17 September 2024 it will be day two of the site visits with the standing committee covering projects in areas like Kariega among other areas.
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