Consumers are definitely in for a few shocks, since some of the cost drivers have necessitated increases above the consumer price index.<\/p>\n
A shortfall of R94,6 million to balance the R1,6 billion budget, led to increases of 6,35% on sewerage levies, 12,2% on electricity, 11,85% on refuse removal, 6,6% increase on property rates and a staggering 17,75% increase on water.<\/p>\n
The budget is balanced and fully funded with a net surplus of R91 125, and a projected cash balance of R216 million.<\/p>\n
The municipality allocated R74,1 million for the maintenance of infrastructure, while R97,7 million of the capital budget appropriated towards the renewal of existing assets.<\/p>\n
The budget amounts to R1,4 billion for operating expenditure and R236,4 million for capital projects.<\/p>\n
The municipality’s equitable share increased from R16 million to R120 million, and will mainly be used to alleviate the pressure on the 48 000 households presently bearing the financial brunt, as relief to indigent households at an amount of R7,5 million per months.<\/p>\n
Over the next three years, the municipaly plans to spend R52 million on roads and storm water infrastructure, of which R27 million will be appropriated towards the building on 5 kilometers of new roads in Aerorand, Mhluzi, Kwazamokuhle, Tokologo and Rockdale.<\/p>\n
Only R5,5 million and R8,6 million will be availed for storm water systems and renewal of existing infrastructure respectively.<\/p>\n
About R32,1 million will be spent on sewerage purification and reticulation, with upgrades at the underperforming Boskrans sewerage plant, to increase its treatment capacity to 45 mega-litres per day.<\/p>\n
Sewerage bulk services will also be connected to 1100 stands in Newtown and 395 stands in Kwazamokuhle.<\/p>\n
R64,6 million will be spent on electrical infrastructure, which will include R7,7 million expenditure for area lighting for Mountain View, Rockville, Mafube and Thutukani, and a further expenditure of R30,5 million for the electrification of 1000 Rockdale, Newtown and Kwazamokuhle houses.<\/p>\n
While the municipality will only spend R7 million on the upgrade of municipal buildings, R31 million will be spent to create new parks, the development of basic sport facilities and the maintenance of cemeteries.<\/p>\n
A meagre R33 million will be appropriated towards water infrastructure, with R3 million availed for replacement of old water pipes which leads to certain areas being without water for hours due to bursts, R11 million for a new reservoir at Kwazamokuhle, servicing of 800 stands in Newtown and Kwazamokuhle and the pittance of R5 million to increase water capacity in town.<\/p>\n
The amalgamation of the Steve Tshwete Municipality with eMakhazeni, remains a concern, with the DA’s caucus leader, Mr Hennie Niemann, expressing his sincere skepticism over next years budget, in reply to this year’s budgetary feat that will mainly advance previously disadvantaged and developing communities.<\/p>\n
In Reply to the budget, Mr Niemann warned that the massive water increase should be noted by all residents, as failure to do so would lead to devastating increases on August’s payable levies.<\/p>\n
Mr Ben Mokoena of Cope said that the municipality’s plan to spend only 14% of the budget on capital projects, which is the main employment driver, is counterproductive.<\/p>\n
He warned that sharp increases averaging 14% throughout, compared to employment increases of 5 to 7%, was financially non-sustainable, and unfair towards the middle and high income households.<\/p>\n
“Increases on private services and products will be implemented to protect businesses against the sharp increases, leading to consumers paying double to keep what they have,” Mr Mokoena told council.<\/p>\n
Despite apprehension, both Cope and the DA nonetheless supported the budget.<\/p>\n
Only one budget increase worries the ANC namely electricity, since Nersa is yet to announce whether it will allow Eskom a further increase, which will impact heavily on the entire country.<\/p>\n
The best advice however is, the less you use, the less you pay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
An average increase of 14% on services will be implemented from July 1, mayor Mike Masina announced on Thursday when he tabled the budget for 2015\/2016.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1848,"featured_media":29892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"hasGravity":false,"cxt_article_byline":"Gerhard Rheeder","cxt_disable_google_ads":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news-headlines"],"category_labels":{"Category":"News","SubCategory":"Local news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29891"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29891\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/develop.citizen.co.za\/middelburg-observer\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}