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Speech by Advocate Lentswe Mokgatle,
Executive Mayor of Mogale City Budget 10 June 2004 Mogale City, Krugersdorp
The Speaker of Council It gives me great pleasure to present to you this afternoon the Mogale City Local Municipality's budget for financial year 2004/2005. This budget was carefully compiled so that it linked with priorities and needs of our communities. Mogale City Local Municipality has strategically chosen service delivery projects that will make a positive impact in the lives of our people. This is our passion and drive and it will continue to be so. I feel rest assured that, with our professional administrative staff, dedicated councillors and a supportive community this vision and plan will become a reality and a pride of our city, region and nation. It is my belief and conviction that together with our communities we will be able to join hands and make Mogale City a winning city. Mr. Speaker, we are going to live up to our vision to make Mogale City a desirable place to live, invest and visit; where all our people may enjoy a sustainable quality of life. We are fortunate to have an administrative staff, which is committed in their professional capacity to achieving this vision. We are committed to move our city decisively towards the eradication of poverty and underdevelopment. Mr. Speaker, I am sure everyone is by now anxious to know where is the beef? What does this plan contain? Well now listen to the music in your ears and see the prospect of a bright future for our city. The Mogale City Integrated Development Plan an Medium Term Income and Expenditure Framework (MTIEF) for the next three years will be geared to build a viable and financially sustainable municipality. A municipality that can foster economic growth and development and in so doing facilitate the creation of jobs and poverty alleviation. Additionally, a municipality that can effectively generate, manage and grow its revenue base. Equally important will be a major focus on the reduction of service backlogs whiles also keeping up with the demands of new developments. Through this process we will not only strive to provide houses, free basic services (electricity, water and sanitation). We plan to use approaches that can foster the creation of jobs, promotion of black economic empowerment and broaden the economic base of our economy. Also priority in our plans for the next three years is HIV and AIDS, Crime and the empowerment of vulnerable groups. We plan to support our various programmes ranging from food security, education to supporting home-based care centres. Through our joint efforts with the SAPS, Public Safety departments of the adjacent municipalities, business sector and the broader communities. We plan to deal with criminals and fraudsters a "not in Mogale" blow. In this regard, we plan to rollout the implementation of our Municipal Police Programme, up-scale our crime and traffic law enforcement initiatives, while also putting in place programmes that will empower and enable communities to play a greater role in combating crime The focus of our approach will not only be an integrated (internally and externally) effort, it will also be to target initiatives that improve the quality of life and security of our residents, investors and visitors in the short to long-term period. Furthermore, we plan to take care to unite our people across the colour, ethnic and gender spectrum to support the vision of our city. We plan to do this through our various sport, recreation and culture projects. We will continue to support initiatives that develop the young, elderly, women and the disabled through initiatives that range from education, skills development to food security. Mr. Speaker, 2004 is the first year when Mogale City has officially prepared a three-year budget in the form of the MTIEF. Becoming a Human Rights City is also at the top of our priority list. Achieving our mandate of being a developmental, participative and accountable municipality is what we have worked for over the past few years. In the next three years, we plan to consolidate these achievements by focusing on promoting and ensuring the protection of human rights for our residents, visitors and investors. The Human Rights City initiative will be rolled out through programmes that will consolidate our governance structures. The ward offices and ward committees will be fully functional. Levels and degrees of community and stakeholder participation and reporting will also be strengthened. Following are the details of our plan and budget. Three key principles underpin our Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and MTIEF, namely:
The Mogale City Local Municipality's Budget is as follows:
Financial year 2004/2005 Key to making this plan a reality is ensuring the effective management of our revenue base. Project implementation will be closely monitored to ensure compliance to the plan and budget. The municipality will develop strategic partnership with business and financial institutions to facilitate the financing and management of implementation. In addition, additional capacity will be developed and brought into the municipality to ensure the successful and effective implementation of projects. Mogale City has used a growth factor of 3% per annum over the next three years as the basis and rationale for revenue calculations. Mr. Speaker, we shall be gearing ourselves in the new financial year to improve the municipality's financial viability by increasing the collection of debt, employing revenue enhancement mechanisms and reducing costs. The Capital Budget allocations are as follows: Envisaged Infrastructure Services Projects for 2004/2005
Expected Impact:
Priority housing projects are underway in Kagiso Ext 12 and Rietvallei Proper, Sinqobile, Munsieville Ext. 4 and Rietvallei Ext. 1 totalling about 6900 housing units. These projects should be completed by end of November 2004. Mr. Speaker, we shall be providing Free Basic Sanitation, Water and Electricity. The municipality will prioritise indigent and poor households when rolling out this programme. More important will be the drive to improve our billing and revenue collection efforts. We shall also continue to address the challenge of reducing the negative effect of unaccounted for water. The Muldersdrift area shall receive particular attention with respect to building a reservoir, constructing bulk sewer network and bulk water pipe link, which will be completed by June 2005. Social Economic Development Programme:
We plan to convert overhead wires to cable meters and shall convert to pre-pay meters in Munsieville. The conversion of 6,6 to 11 kV distribution lines to strengthen the electricity supply capacity in amongst other areas Factoria, Kenmare, Noordheuwel and Silverfields. We plan to construct a new substation, transmission lines as well as the distribution lines to service the Pinehaven corridor in particular and Muldersdrift. This will be completed by end of June 2005. In this regard the municipality will endeavour to bring in the private sector as a strategic partner in planning, financing, implementing and managing the project. Shared Services
Strategic Services
Political Office
Primary Impact
Mr. Speaker, within the scope of all programmes and projects we will give particular attention to the needs of women, youth, elderly and the disabled. With respect to integrated environmental management, the Luipaardsvlei Landfill Site will be maintained by a co-operative. This is one of our exciting and promising projects because it will create sustainable jobs for people in the co-operative. In both the current and new financial year about 17 SMMEs will benefit from the landfill site. Furthermore, more than 50 temporary jobs shall be created. Mogale City's Operating Budget's key items are:
Mr. Speaker, we have an operating surplus of R1 386 074. This is one of our critical challenges to reduce the deficit in our books. The municipality is implementing ways that will improve our revenue streams and collections. In the new financial year, there will be an increase in assessment rates tariff. The increase will be of 7% in the assessment rates tariff. The electricity tariff is in line with the year three of the proposed restructuring plan approved by National Electricity Regulator. The proposed increase will be from 7% to 8%. This will be levied as from the 1 September 2004 as per approval of the regulator. The new restructured water tariff will increase by 10%. The tariff for waste services will also increase by 10%. The general tariff for Integrated Environmental Management will increase by 10% across the board to be effective by 9 July 2004. The general tariff for Local Economic Development will also be increased by 20% across the board, which will take effect from 9 July 2004. These tariffs are presented to promote social and economic development and at the same time provide services to communities in an efficient and sustainable manner. We should ensure that tariffs take into account the need to finance future development and upgrade of existing services to reduce borrowing to fund such expenditure. At the heart of it all, we should recover costs and reinvest in infrastructure. As indicated in the media in the past week, the MTIEF and IDP for the period 2004/5 to 2006/7, along with the detailed tariffs are available for perusal at the Municipal Manager's Office for a period of 30 days as from today 9 June 2004. Thereafter, the new tariffs will be implemented from 9 July 2004. Mr. Speaker, this budget seeks to address the following:
Mogale City and City of Klerksdorp will be signing a twinning agreement this coming Friday 11 June 2004. This is the first co-operative governance agreement of its kind between two municipalities from two different provinces. The signing ceremony will be done at a special sitting of Mogale City Council and Klerksdorp City Council. Councillors and interested members of the public are invited to the signing ceremony in Klerksdorp. I thank you. I thank you.
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