Pretoria - The City of Tshwane’s DA-led administration has been rapped on the knuckles for failing to spend half of its budget in the 2018/19 financial year.
Opposition parties criticised the underspending of the municipality during the ordinary council sitting at Tshwane House Council Chamber yesterday. This after the tabling of the municipal annual report, in which it emerged that the City failed to spend half of the R4 billion capital budget.
The report noted: “The total adjustment capital budget amounts to R4bn The expenditure for the period, including that of the municipal entities, amounts to R2bn, which represents 50% of spending against the total approved budget.
Expenditure, including commitments, is at R2.5bn.”
According to the report, electricity service charges were responsible for most of the variance in the budget. It cited that the revenue on electricity smart meters was less than projected due to the replacement of old meters with new ones.
EFF councillor Tshilidzi Tuwani castigated the administration for underspending, saying it was clear the municipality had not performed according to plan.
He linked poor performance to the murder of five homeless people in the city in June, saying they lacked safe shelter as a result of the City’s failure to build houses. Countless defective street lights and Tshwane's struggle to operate clinics for 24 hours a day were given as part of the bigger problem, as was lack of progress in the formalisation of informal settlements.
ANC councillor Nosipho Makeke was also critical of the DA administration, saying it had achieved nothing in this financial year. She scoffed at the report for defeating the purpose of the annual report to provide a record of activities and promote accountability to residents.
Makeke said the DA had not lived up to expectations of governing the city in line with the impression it created that wherever it was in charge, it performed well.
She claimed the administration was riddled with incompetence and corruption. “This administration came into office accusing the ANC of all manner of corruption, but almost half of the budget has not been spent,” she said.
Makeke said residents of Soshanguve had to endure the unbearable smell of sewage spills.
“Atteridgeville, which used to be clean, is sitting with piles of rubbish and the inner city is today looking like a rubbish dump.”
Mayor Stevens Mokgalapa said he was open to criticism, but it must be borne in mind that “when the DA came into office it had inherited a deficit of over a billion rand”.
However, ANC caucus leader Dr Kgosi Maepa interjected and said the mayor was obfuscating facts contained in the 2016/17 auditor-general's report. The report, he said, showed that the ANC municipality left a surplus of R736 million in City coffers before the 2016 municipal polls.
Mokgalapa cautioned councillors not to use the water in Hammanskraal as a political football because it was a sensitive issue.
Regarding the killing of homeless people, he said he had instructed the department of community and social development to find a shelter for those at risk.
In his report this week, Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu warned against unauthorised expenditure and said the City of Tshwane Metro was the largest contributor with R1.7 billion - much of it as a result of contracts awarded in the time of the previous administration, including the smart meter contract.