The adjustment budget of the Mogale City Local Municipality (Krugersdorp, Magaliesburg, Muldersdrift), which was adopted today, serves as irrefutable proof of the Municipality’s dire financial position.
The biggest cause of concern is that the adjustment budget for the 2023/24 financial year amounting to R226 million is unfunded.
The enormous shortfall is mainly due to the additional R56 million budgeted for security services in the current financial year.
Security services seem to be a bottomless pit in which Mogale City taxpayers’ hard-earned money disappears without any real benefits.
The budget had initially earmarked R70 million for security services, buy now that amount has been increased to R120 million.
The budget also made provision for R30 million in unforeseen expenses relating to security services, but that amount has now been increased to approximately R36 million.
This means that the R100 million which was earmarked for security services has now been increased to a total amount of R156 million.
Despite the enormous expenditure on security services, the Municipality’s infrastructure is vandalised almost on a daily basis. Power cables and other power transmission equipment are frequently stolen.
Mogale City residents have become accustomed to the power supply not being restored after load shedding because infrastructure is destroyed during load shedding, particularly at night.
Clearly, the ANC and EFF’s puppet Mayor, Mr Danny Thupane of the African Transformation Movement (ATM), is incompetent and utterly unable to lead Mogale City.
Other burning issues in the adjustment budget include:
• The budget for refuse removal and clearing illegal dumping was increased by 58% from R23,4 million to 37,2 million.
• The budget for equipment used to repair streetlights has been reduced by R1,5 million.
• The adjustment budget projects a reduction of R63 million in total revenue. How can the total revenue decrease while the number of households grows exponentially?
• Lastly, the projected collection rate for services is 89%. So, the Council expects that 11% of the services delivered and for which accounts are issued will remain unpaid.
This state of affairs is unsustainable, and will surely result in Mogale City sinking deeper and deeper into bankruptcy.
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