Johannesburg - The 6000 investigations into fraud and corruption which remain unsolved, the distribution of 500 000 parcels prior to elections and the re-establishment of the Johannesburg Tourism were criticised during the City of Joburg’s budget debate on Thursday
Member of the mayoral committee for finance Jolidee Matongo, during the delivery of the R73.3billion 2021/22 speech, admitted municipal failures in service delivery and constant complaints from residents, but promised the new budget would bring relief to ratepayers.
The Joburg DA, which opposed the budget, said the MMC had delivered “an election budget designed to give priority to areas that are ANC strongholds”.
DA finance spokesperson Patrick Atkinson said the city had “crucially ignored the R200bn infrastructure backlog that was making life hell for residents.
“We have all had to face power and water outages that happen too often, and last much longer than they should. Residents of Crosby and Brixton have been without running water for five days. Potholes are a daily reality for all drivers and passengers that just signal that our city is slowly crumbling all around us.
“The DA is proposing spending R10bn on fixing and upgrading power, water, and road networks. This is more than triple the current budget proposed by the ANC. This would address the backlog, but exclude regular repairs and maintenance, which is not even included in the current budget.”
The city’s health and recreation facilities also needed attention. “Many of our current facilities are in a dire state, with little to no repairs and maintenance done to libraries, swimming pools, sports fields, recreation centres, clinics, drug treatment centres, and shelters,” Atkinson said.
Another key area to invest in was safety and upholding the rule of law. The DA said at least R500 million should be spent on recruiting an additional 500 JMPD officers.
The 6 000 outstanding fraud charges should also be wrapped up, he said, to recover the millions looted from city coffers by corrupt officials.
An amount of R1.5bn should be spent on the upgrading of informal settlements through sustainable electrification, water provision, proper sanitation, and allocated plots.
“This is more than double the current figure proposed by the ANC, who, in the last year, had to return over R132m in grants meant for upgrading of informal settlements.”
On the billing problems, the DA said at the heart of this problem was the broken billing system which the ANC wasted hundreds of millions on.
“We proposed a once-off R75 million to buy a new billing system which will allow us to improve revenue collection from the current low of 88%, to 95%.”
He said pointless programmes and vanity projects such as giving tractors and bakeries to co-operatives under the guise of “food resilience” and the R45m meant to bloat Joburg Tourism into a new company for cadre deployment, should be scrapped.
ActionsSA, led by former Joburg city mayor Herman Mashaba, said: “The corrupt ANC-led government presented a budget rich in election promises but with little prospects of delivery.
“Since coming into office over 18 months ago, residents have watched infrastructure and services undergo a rapid decline across the board. Instead of addressing this decline, which is evident for all residents to see, the ANC is more interested in managing the tarnished brand of their corrupt mayor Geoff Makhubo.
“It was evident the ANC had every intention of using the city’s coffers as an electioneering vehicle. “One cannot help but suspiciously eye the 500000 food parcels which are likely to be used as voting fodder in ANC strongholds.”
He also slammed the R45m to re-establish the Joburg Tourism Company. “To spend millions on promoting Joburg to the people of the world, while the city’s residents must live without quality services, is criminal.”
The Star