Durban – Residents in eThekwini have shown great interest in shaping the City’s next budget as well as its Integrated Development Plan (IDP).
Speaker of the municipality Thabani Nyawose said records show public meetings called to discuss these key items had been well attended.
The City has a R66 billion budget for the 2023/2024 financial year, comprising an operating budget of R57.9bn and a capital budget of R8.1bn.
He said the City hosted several of the meetings and the last public committee meeting is scheduled for May 11.
“It is encouraging to note community interest in these hearings, all valuable contributions made by members of the public have been captured and will be considered prior to the finalisation of the budget.
“It is being noted that some communities, such as the uMlazi community raised urgent matters requiring attention of the municipality,” adding that they would go back to the residents to respond to the issues that had been raised in the budget hearings.
He said generally, these public engagements are important and critical in ensuring that residents are kept abreast of council business, adding that such meetings are a mandatory legal requirement that is monitored by the provincial treasury.
“Such gatherings also have to be recorded and reported accordingly, council is reminded that other than these engagements being statutory in terms of the council code of conduct, these are also monitored by national Treasury as compulsory indicators for service delivery,” he said
He urged councillors to submit reports from community engagements to avoid negative reporting against the municipality, he said adding that to date 10 wards of the city 111 had submitted these reports.