22/06/2022
Mere days before the start of a new financial year on July 1, the Nelson Mandela Bay council adopted its 2022/2023 budget on Tuesday with the proposed tariff increases lowered a notch, bringing some much-needed relief to ratepayers.
The council agreed to increase property rates 5.5%, but ratepayers will only pay a 5% increase for water, sanitation, and refuse.
The increase for the electricity tariff was given the nod at 7.4%, which is subject to approval by the National Energy Regulator of SA (Nersa).
Earlier proposed hikes would have seen ratepayers paying 6.5% more for water, sanitation and refuse, while the proposed tariff increase for electricity was 8.6%.
The tariff increases are even slightly less than what chief financial officer Selwyn Thys proposed at a joint mayoral committee and budget and treasury meeting on Monday.
At Tuesday’s meeting, the budget was adopted with a provision to rejig it within 60 days and rework the ward-based budget in the same time frame.
This recommendation came from the DA.
The budget was adopted during a virtual sitting with some sound delays and an hour-long adjournment.
Thys said the budget would be amended with the new tariffs and the plan was to close the gap by getting money from the cash reserves.
“As the increases are now 5%, this means the tariff booklet also has to be updated,” he said.
The slight drop in the proposed increase follows a proposal by the ACDP during Monday’s joint committee meeting.
Of the city’s R15.4bn draft budget, R13.9bn will be for the operational costs of running the city, while R1.5bn will go towards capital projects.
Initially, Thys had proposed that property rates be increased 5.5%, with the water tariffs increased 6%, sanitation 6%, refuse 6% and electricity 7.4%.
He said this would leave a hole in the budget of more than R30m.
The council also agreed to a proposal by DA councillor Malcolm Figg for a special readjustment budget within 60 days.
“The unemployment rate is recorded at 35% and this has contributed to our collection rate,” Figg said.
“We would like to call for an early adjustments budget in 60 days so that the budget can be realigned.
“It is important for this to happen so we can attend to the water crisis.”
For the first time in months, the council ran smoothly and dealt with items that had been outstanding since at least 2021.
It was also agreed to review the metro’s employment equity plan to try to use Nelson Mandela Bay’s demographics and not those at the provincial level.
Provincially, black people make up 86.3% of the estimated 6,734,001 population, coloureds 8.3%, whites 4.7% and Indians or Asian people 0.4%.
In the Bay, out of the 1,152,115 people, 60.1% are black, 23.6% coloured, 14.4% white and 1.1% Indian or Asian.
This means when the provincial race demographics are used, coloured people are less likely to be employed by the municipality.
DA councillor Rano Kayser called for the employment equity plan to be reviewed, with his motion seconded by fellow party member Peter Hermans.
PAC councillor Bassie Kamana said it was not right that people were colour-coded based on their race.
“It creates division, and we are all humans.
“We can’t give a certain group [a bigger chance].
“We need individual rights because we feel that we should start with people in the region [for municipal jobs] and if there is a scarce skill then we should look outside the metro,” Kamana said.
Come July 1, councillors are expected to receive a 4.4% increase on salaries after the council agreed to the pay hike.
But FF+ councillor Bill Harrington said the party was not in support of any salary increases for councillors.
“The FF+ thinks that the money can rather be used for the maintenance of the obsolete water pipelines to prove that we are serious about contributing to curbing the water leaks,” Harrington said.
He was also not in support of any increase in property rates.
“The municipality must first get its own house in order and actively prove that it is waging a war against water leaks to repair all leaks that are reported.
“As I speak, there are five leaks in the men’s toilets here,” he said.
“[This budget] will not enjoy the stamp of approval from the FF+ to further tax the [ratepayers].”
PA councillor Bradley Murray said the party was not in favour of any salary increases for councillors.
“I think we have failed in our duties to perform and to fight for the communities at large,” Murray said.
DOP councillor and budget and treasury committee chair Tukela Zumani said the rush to pass the budget was the fault of the council, which subsequently delayed the public participation process for the Integrated Development Plan (IDP).
The IDP was passed alongside the budget.
Zumani said the city needed to address the ballooning wage bill urgently.
The city’s employee-related costs are a major cost driver, with salaries and allowances to municipal staff and councillors greater than 30% of the total budget.
“The problem is that we are not attempting to fix the problem.
“Rather we are budgeting for the problem itself,” Zumani said.
He said the municipality needed to urgently deal with the overtime policy.
ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom said he was pleased his call for reduced tariff increases did not fall on deaf ears.
“Our residents are already struggling to pay their municipal accounts,” he said.
“This can be seen in our drop in the collection rate and our debtors’ book that is sitting at R9bn.”
