25 May 2006
By Anish Abraham and Ndaba Dlamini
Unpacking a budget of R21-billion, Executive Mayor Amos Masondo said specific
projects focusing on roads, power, water and housing, among other issues,
would go a long way towards tackling the City's critical infrastructure backlogs.
It's another record-breaking budget for Johannesburg. Executive Mayor Amos
Masondo has presented the City's 2006-07 budget of R21-billion: a capital
budget of R3,2-billion and an operating budget of R17,8-billion.
This is more than R2-billion up on last year's budget, which at the time
was a record-breaking R18,9-billion. The mayor delivered his medium term budget
and unveiled the City's first Growth and Development Strategy and Johannesburg's
five-year Integrated Development Plan (IDP) on Wednesday, 24 May.
"We are of the view that the City of Johannesburg's record of good governance,
service delivery and development in the 2000 to 2006 term of office is very
positive indeed," he said.
He said stakeholders commended the City on its consultation process for its
Growth and Development Summit, adding that comments would be carefully considered
and where appropriate, included in updated versions of both the Growth and
Development Strategy and five-year IDP.
"The IDP is not only informed by our long-term view in the Growth and
Development Strategy, but is also underpinned by a new set of six mayoral
priorities," he explained.
Announcing his budget, Masondo also spoke of the opportunities and challenges
facing the city. Besides growing the economy and creating jobs, the challenges
included eradicating social inequalities; tackling poverty; service delivery;
dealing with urbanisation and migration; fighting HIV and Aids; urban renewal
and regeneration; and upgrading technology.
The mayor also identified opportunities, saying, "These major opportunities,
among others, need to be grasped and harnessed by our City in the interest
of our long-term development."
These included:
The City gets its revenue from electricity (24,8 percent); water (20,7 percent);
property rates (20,7 percent); refuse removal (3 percent); fines and licence
fees (1,4 percent); and operating and capital grants (20 percent), with minor
tariff charges making up the balance.
"The City anticipates raising revenue of R17,9-billion for 2006-7, R19-billion
for 2007-8 and R19,9-billion for 2008-9," Masondo said.
It is expected that the City will have operating surpluses of R124,8-million
for 2006-7, R209-million for 2007-8 and R293,5-million for the 2008-9 financial
year. The operating surpluses will be applied to address capital infrastructure
backlogs.
Highlights of the 2006-07 budget
The mayor spoke of highlights of the budget, saying that these particular
projects, totalling some R3-billion "will go a long way to addressing
the City's critical infrastructure backlogs".
Some identified projects are:
-
Johannesburg Roads Agency will receive R284-million for
tarring gravel roads in Diepsloot, Orange Farm and Ivory Park; R40-million
to upgrade Koma Road in Soweto; and R50-million to improve mobility in the
city;
-
Transport will receive R86-million for the development
of the North-South Strategic Public Transport Network Flagship Project,
from Regina Mundi to Parktown; R42-million for the Baragwanath taxi rank;
and R38-million for the N17 access to Soweto;
-
R259-million will be allocated to Johannesburg Water to
continue the roll out of Operation Gcina'manzi, the City's innovative and
extensive process of replacing the degraded water network. It is envisaged
that 58 034 meters will be installed between July and December 2006, resulting
in 6,4 million kilolitres of water conserved, amounting to R17,9-million;
-
Among other projects, City Power will spend about R100-million
on refurbishing substations, which will have a major effect on rehabilitation
of the network, thereby reducing electricity outages;
-
The Johannesburg Development Agency will receive a total
of R168-million to support the regeneration of Randburg, the Fashion District,
Soweto Empowerment Zone, Constitution Hill, Greater Kliptown and Newtown;
-
Programme Phakama, aimed at the creation of a single customer
value chain and a single revenue value chain across the City, including
the municipal entities, will receive an allocation of R228-million;
-
About R500-million will be spent by the City on projects
relating to the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup, made up of upgrading water,
electricity, sporting and transportation infrastructure and the upgrading
of the Ellis Park and Nasrec precincts; and
-
Housing, including social housing, will receive a total
capital allocation of R128-million for the provision of essential services
across the city from Kliptown to Orange Farm Ext 9.
The budget has also made provision for the appointment of 500 additional
metro police officers a year over the next three years; 25 additional healthcare
workers who will help with the expansion of the City's HIV and Aids programme
as well as improving access to primary health care; and the appointment of
10 additional environmental health officers who will assist in the reduction
of pollution, promote food safety and ensure vector control.
Additional fire fighters and emergency response team staff will also be appointed.
Source: Johannesburg
News Agency
Presentation for Seminar
