Note to editors: Please find attached English and Afrikaans soundbites by Cllr Marius Marais and Sesotho by Karabo Khakhau MP.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Thabo Mofutsanyana District Municipality voted against the 2024/2025 annual budget tabled in the council meeting. The budget doesn’t address the crucial shortcomings in the service delivery nightmare that haunts residents of the District.
The total Employee and Councillor cost in the budget equals R 113 255 320.00 which consists of 63.6% of the total budget of R 178 030 256.00—leaving available funds of R 64 774 936.00 which consists of 36.38% of the total budget.
Depreciation cost stands at R 3 175 965 which is taken away from the R 64 774 936.00 available funds leaving R 61 598 971.00 available for spending on service delivery-related planned expenditure.
From this R 61 598 971.00 another total amount of R 13 072 000.00 is taken away for grants allocated specifically for Finance Management Grant, EPWP, Energy Efficient & Demand Side Management, Rural Roads Assets Management System and AGRISETA Grant that leaves available only R 48 526 971.00 which represents 27.25% of the total budget.
The municipality spends money on unnecessary activities such as:
- Catering Services amounting to R 1 542 363.00 equals 3.17% of the available R 48 526 971.00.
- Event Promoters amounting to R 1 255 463.00 equals 2.58% of the available R 48 526 971.00
- Transport amounting to R 1 616 716.00 equals 3.33% of the available R 48 526 971.00
These three line items cost the municipality R 4 414 542.00 which is 9.09% of the available budget of R 48 526 971.00, yet the municipality only budgeted 0.10% for the Disaster Management Centre and only 1.03% for Emergency Response.
Although we welcome the budget allocation of 0.51% of the available budget for repairs and pothole maintenance it is not indicated where this maintenance will be conducted and if this allocation is enough to have a real impact on the devastating conditions of the streets and roads in the District.
This budget does not speak to the addressing of the real service delivery issues that our communities in the TMDM so desperately need.
The small farming community of Slabberts outside of Bethlehem on the R26 road to Fouriesburg struggle without electricity supply in their informal homes daily. The Dihlabeng municipality can’t even grade/scrape the informal soccer field the local soccer players used to play soccer on.
The communities of the towns of Fouriesburg, Rosendal and Paul Roux are facing daily challenges with electricity and water cuts as a result of many faults which are not receiving the proper repairs and replacement attention that is needed.
Potholes in our streets and roads are tormenting all of us and there seems to be no real action within the budget to actively address the problems we have with the poor and bad road infrastructure within our TMDM. Sewerage is running/flowing freely into our streams and rivers, contaminating our freshwater resources.
We cannot support any budget which does not focus on the real service delivery issues within the District Municipality.