Cape Town - The City of Cape Town revealed it would be cutting its capital budget by R1.28 billion leaving the total budget at R7.3bn from R8.6bn.
This is according to executive mayor Dan Plato during the City’s first Council sitting for 2021, yesterday, where the January Adjustments Budget was tabled.
The total operating budget is adjusted by R616 074 from R44.9bn to R44.3bn.
Plato said: “While the adjustments budget provides us with an opportunity to reprioritise funding based on revised plans, objectives and possible budgetary constraints experienced, the Covid-19 pandemic has placed an additional burden on the City’s budget, but which I believe we have successfully managed.”
The City has allocated R2.2bn for a major upgrade of the Potsdam Wastewater Treatment Works.
Plato said the upgrade would provide new technology and additional treatment capacity between now and an estimated completion in August 2025.
Due to the national government's cut in grant aid, the City could no longer provide fire kits to informal settlements affected by fires. Plato said they would however continue to look at unlocking funds to support those in need of general relief and assistance.
He welcomed the Supreme Court of Appeal’s approval to hear the City’s appeal against the South African Human Rights Commission and EFF regarding unlawful occupations and to ban the City’s anti-land invasion unit.
According to Plato, residents lost approximately 15 000 housing opportunities, 11 000 in Khayelitsha alone, due to unlawful occupations.
Plato is also the latest to have written to President Cyril Ramaphosa and Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, requesting the easing of certain lockdown restrictions more specifically the beach closures and alcohol ban.
Meanwhile, GOOD Party secretary-general Brett Herron said: “The City’s adjustment budget reveals a staggering R718 million in surplus funds from revenue and expenditure adjustments in the current financial year.
“Instead of retaining these surplus funds, and then passing on these savings to the residents and ratepayers of the City in the form of rates and tariff reductions in the next budget cycle, the mayor is going on a massive spending spree with provisions made to spend about R605 million in the next five months.”
Cape Argus