The City of Cape Town has given itself a pat on the back for spending 91.4 percent of its R4.17 billion capital budget for the 2011/12 financial year.
But despite this, deputy mayor Ian Neilson acknowledged on Tuesday that “much more needs to be done” to rectify the challenges of the past.
Neilson and mayor Patricia de Lille unpacked and explained the provisional financial results for the city’s income versus expenditure.
“This level of expenditure (91.4 percent) is evidence of this administration’s ability to manage large-scale projects that directly benefit the people of Cape Town,” said Neilson.
He said a further 5.3 percent of the budget had been committed to projects that would be completed over the next few months.
“In terms of capital spend, the key issue is around the delivery of these hard services. There are parts of the city where our services are still stretched, where, for example, the electricity network is under stress. It still needs further investment to enable future growth. We have to invest in more (infrastructure).”
Neilson earmarked wastewater treatment plants, sewage flows, and the water supply system as areas where more investment was needed.
Absorbing population growth was also identified as a key challenge.
“Urbanisation is a reality. More people are going to continue coming into the city and we have to get ahead of the curve and ensure that our services are ready,” he said.
The shortcomings in public transport and housing or living conditions were also mentioned as areas of concern. De Lille and Neilson defended the MyCiTi bus programme against criticism that it was based on a untenable business model.
“There is a massive need. You see how half of (the people) are hanging out of the trains coming back from the city (to Khayelitsha). The MyCiTi bus will bring a major relief to all of the people living in the south-east of the city,” De Lille said.
The roll-out of the service to Khayelitsha and Mitchells Plain is estimated to be completed by December next year, she said.
The ANC’s council caucus leader, Tony Ehrenreich, said the expenditure was an improvement from previous years, but criticised the city for spending money in the “wrong areas”.
“This is why we have seen increasing service delivery strikes this year. All the roll-outs are going to the wealthy areas, while the promises are going out to the poor areas. There is therefore not an alignment between money spent and the areas where there is the most urgent need,” Ehrenreich said.
For the new financial year, which started on July 1, the city has adopted a record budget of R6bn – the highest capital budget of any SA city this year.
Cape Argus