Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda tabled the City’s special adjustment budget for the 2020/2021 financial year at the virtual Full Council meeting yesterday, 26 February 2021.

 

In terms of Section 28 of the Municipal Finance Management Act only one budget adjustment per financial year is permitted. However, National Treasury has allowed for two adjustments due the first tabled in September 2020 and the second tabled today. The total consolidated second adjustment budget including entities stands at R49 412 044.

 

Speaking on the adjustment budget, Kuanda said “This is a pro poor budget that has been prepared to cushion the residents from the distressing impact of the pandemic leaving many without jobs, businesses to close and others with reduced income. COVID-19 has wreaked all sectors of the economy and society at large, and it is for this reason that the City’s leadership remained steadfast in its commitment to make sure that service delivery was not compromised.

 

The delicate act of balancing saving lives, and livelihoods becomes even more critical. This is precisely what we have done when we prepared this adjustment budget,” he added.

 

In keeping with the vision of being a caring city the Mayor explained that the City had undertaken to not disconnect services to the most vulnerable residents since March 2020, however those with substantial arrears who could not meet their monthly financial obligations had to be disconnected.

 

It is encouraging that the City has maintained its impeccable collection rate and as of end January 2021 the collection rate was 95%.

 

“This demonstrates that the measures we have put in place to improve our billing system even prior to the pandemic is yielding positive results.

 

We anticipate an improvement in collection rate in the month of February and are confident that we will see positive development throughout the financial year. Rest assured that our municipality is still functional and able to meet all its financial obligations,” he said.

 

To further assist the hard pressed consumers, the municipality has made several concessions in place including offering a generous package to consumers where the interest on arrears accrued in 2020/2021 to be written off, and arrangements made to pay for the outstanding balance after a 5% to 10% deposit. This concession will be available until the end of the financial year on 30 June 2021.

 

The City has increased the provision for electricity bulk charges due to the increased demand, as well as for bulk water with the commissioning of the western aqueduct. This project is critical as it seeks to provide sustainable supply of water in the west and northern areas of the city.

 

The city has also been very pragmatic with its budget and introduced staged budgeting in 2020/2021. Certain items in the budget were deferred and only brought back based on affordability. An amount of R1 billion was brought back on the capital budget in September adjustment to be spent on improving service delivery infrastructure.

 

In the spirit of cooperative governance, the city was able to convince the National Minister for Human Settlements, Water & Sanitation to reduce the 2020/2021 bulk water tariff increase to zero. Kuanda commended the Minister for providing leadership and acceding to the City’s request.

 

The City also expects a maximum spend on the capital budget with a key focus on core service delivery items that are critical to improving the lives of the poor, particularly in rural and township communities.

 

The following projects together with others have been targeted for implementation in this adjustment budget:

 

• Sibusiso Mdakane Road upgrade in Umlazi;

• Nozaza development node in Ntuzuma;

• KwaMashu Waste Beneficiation Centre;

• Business Hives in Folweni, KwaMakhutha and Dalton Hostel;

• Building and renovation of fire stations in Hammarsdale, Phoenix, Verulam, Umlazi and Chatsworth;

• Renovation of Cato Manor Museum;

• Construction of Mapholoba Road in Ward 17, Sundu Road in Ward 45, Khehla Mkhize Road in Ward 94, Vusi Mzimela Road in Ward 29 and

 

Palm Road in Ward 99.

 

In his closing remarks on the adjustment budget Kaunda, said, “We also accelerate the implementation of all major investment projects in the city as they have a potential of growing our economy and create employment. While COVID-19 has devasted our communities and claimed the lives of many of our loved ones, we are proud of the resilience that has been shown by some of the sectors of our economy

that have been able to weather the storm.

 

As the leadership of eThekwini Municipality, we are putting all our efforts to reviving our economy and deliver much-needed services to the people. We are therefore calling upon you to support this adjustment budget as it seeks to chart a new service delivery path for the city”.

 

ENDS

 

Issued by the eThekwini Municipality’s Communications Unit. For media enquiries contact the Mayor’s Spokesperson, Mluleki Mntungwa on 060 9741140