Speaking in parliament, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said that government will utilize all financial resources allocated for different developmental projects in the country's 284 municipalities to further roll out basic services to the poor. He also said that a troubleshooting team is ready to be deployed in municipalities to iron out bottlenecks including billing systems, and electricity and water cut-offs.

Minister of Housing, Lindiwe Sisulu, drew attention to the "problem of unabated urbanisation" during her budget vote speech and said: "It is useful in this regard that I quote the South African Cities Network report which eloquently describes the condition of living in an informal settlement. It reads:'Ivory Park, with about 225 000 people, accounts for 80% of Midrand's entire population, and has grown steadily over the last decade, although it occupies 7% of land area. Most residents are poor: 70% earn less than R2 500 pm, and of these 34% have no formal employment'.

Delivering his State of the City address, Buffalo City Executive Mayor Sindisile Maclean presented the city's third "pro-poor" budget with spending up to R1,6-billion from last year's R1.4-billion for the municipality's 2004/2005 budget.