Note to Editors: Please find attached English soundbite by Cllr Alison Oates, Afrikaans soundbite by Cllr Eleanor Quinta and Sesotho soundbite by Cllr Ana Motaung.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) will formally oppose the proposed Maluti-a-Phofung (MaP) Local Municipality Budget and Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and continue raising its concerns through council oversight processes, as the draft budget fails to credibly address the community’s most urgent service delivery needs while placing further financial pressure on residents and businesses.
MaP’s attempt at a Budget and Integrated Development Plan is a shadow of what a budget should be. Early in the budgeting process, community meetings are held to determine the community’s pressing needs. These should inform resource allocation.
These meetings across the 35 wards of MaP identified roads, bridges, streetlights/high-mast lights, sewerage and water issues, electricity, and housing as the most pressing needs.
These issues are at best superficially addressed in the budget, with very little detail on funding sources and prioritisation. Major sector plans are missing or offer nothing convincing, immediate, visible, credible, or inspiring that would lead residents to believe they should pay for services, or, if they are doing so, that the increased fees are justifiable.
The municipality appears to have decided to base domestic refuse removal rates and sanitation rates on the size of the resident’s stand. Business, government and industrial refuse tariffs will be based on the property’s improvements valuation. This system is rejected by the courts; municipalities’ billing is notoriously incapable; and the valuation roll does not cover the majority of MaP. How this will occur is unfathomable.
Water rates increase drastically for high water users, and whilst domestic users will probably be able to avoid these astronomical increases, businesses with fixed, high water usage could be severely affected.
In the past, MaP has been roundly criticised for not presenting a funded budget, so this time it avoided that by cutting depreciation allowances and the provision for bad debts, and by grossly inflating revenue.
If one extrapolates current revenue, the budgeted revenue from 2026/27 is a ridiculous 26% higher. This is simply wishful thinking. In 2025/26, it seems likely that R324m will be collected for electricity sales, whilst in the next year, R856m is budgeted.
Whilst Eskom is taking steps to install electricity meters in Qwaqwa, the meters have not yet even been sourced, and once installed, a disillusioned and/or exceptionally poor community must be encouraged to pay their bills.
The DA has highlighted its serious concerns regarding the credibility, sustainability, and implementability of this budget and does not believe that it provides a realistic plan to restore service delivery, rebuild public trust, or stabilise the municipality’s finances.