Note to Editors: This speech was delivered in the Tshwane Council Chamber by Ald Cilliers Brink, in reply to the proposed adjustment budget
It must be a difficult day for ActionSA councillors. There is nothing left of ActionSA in this budget adjustment. They’ve given control of Tshwane to the ANC, and thrown away their own election manifesto.
This budget adjustment will increase outsourced contracted services in nearly every department.
The biggest increases go to water tankers and watchman security services. This is a budget for water tankering contractors and the owners of security companies doing business with Tshwane.
It reflects an ANC agenda, one that serves their cadres and tender-preneurs. It will do nothing for the honest, hardworking people of the Capital City. With five months left of the municipal financial year, the mayor wants us to increase spending on water tankers by 62% — adding R242 million to the R378 million in the original budget.
And she wants to increase spending on watchman security services by 103% — adding R315 million to the R307 million in the original budget.
Last year we had a violent unprotected strike between the budget and the budget adjustment. What happened this year?
The ANC took control of Tshwane and they are planning to have their regional congress this year. The mayor is serving her senior coalition partners.
The DA and our coalition partners devised the Hammanskraal water project to get clean water in people’s taps, and reduce reliance on water tankers.
If that project is completed in this municipal financial year, as per schedule, then Tshwane will save R60 million on water tankering in the next financial year.
So why is the mayor asking for R242 million extra for water tankers in the five months left of this financial year? Is she budgeting for the Hammanskraal clean water project to fail?
Is the ANC, EFF, ActionSA and the Patriotic Alliance budgeting for even worse water outages in Soshanguve, Laudium and Garsfontein, so that water tankers can be dispatched?
Last year the DA and our coalition partners commissioned a review of Tshwane’s security model by the University of Pretoria, because when it comes to averting criminal attacks on our infrastructure, stationary guards don’t work.
So why is the mayor asking the residents of Tshwane for R315 million extra for watchman security services in the five months left of the financial year?
We know that these security companies don’t pay their people on time, and don’t provide them with the necessary equipment and training.
So those guards keep on demanding to be insourced by the city at taxpayers’ expense.
Why not budget R100 million of the R315 million on security technology like cameras, motion detectors, and control rooms to link armed response teams with stationary guards?
About the only department that won’t see an increase in outsourced contracted services is the Department of Regional Coordination and Coordination.
That’s the department responsible for grass cutting, pothole repairs, street lights and attending to most water and electricity outages.
In the budget adjustment it is explicitly stated that overtime will be capped across the city, which is good. Except, the city is also freezing the filling of critical vacancies. So, who will be attending to the growing number of service outages?
The upgrade of the Kwagga electricity infeed station is being defunded by R5 million. Kwagga provides the backbone of the city’s electricity supply.
Nothing is being budgeted for completing the work needed to connect the new pylons to the Nyala infeed station, a project that is estimated to cost R20 million.
It seems that the mayor is budgeting for dark streets, water leaks, power and water outages, and maximum pressure being placed on ward councillors by a frustrated public.
As to the credibility of the budget, the mayor had conjured up R437 million of “new money” that the city will supposedly earn from interest on outstanding debtors due to “a change of accounting policy”.
But Tshwane cannot even collect on the existing debt owed to the city, so what is the real value of this accounting entry, and is it a credible premise on which to budget for new spending?
Moreover, later on in this council meeting the mayor will propose a payment incentive to debtors which, if accepted on a large scale, will see the city writing off significant amounts of interest on debt.
According to the documents before us – this budget adjustment will, if accepted by council, reduce the city’s cashflow by R200 million by financial year end.
As it is Tshwane is R334 million behind on the city’s budget funding plan, which the mayor seems to have abandoned at the instruction of her senior ANC partners.
The ANC coalition in Tshwane is budgeting for failure. With the active encouragement of Panyaza Lesufi, they want to turn Tshwane into Joburg. The DA will fight them all the way.
We reject this budget adjustment.