31 Jan 2017

Budget constraints continue to impede service delivery throughout the Southern District.

Finance Committee Chairperson for Southern District Council, Cllr William Masibi noted during a special full council meeting recently that the district has, for instance, not been able to undertake any major maintenance in the past seven years.

Equally, Cllr Masibi relayed that 60 per cent of the district fleet has reached its lifespan against the 40 per cent that is up and running.

“Other challenges facing the district include collection of solid waste, which has not been running as desired due to budgetary constraints.” he said.

Meanwhile, Cllr Masibi said, when presenting recurrent budget, that the council proposed budget for the financial year 2017/18 stands at P365 817 100, which is cumulative of own source income plus revenue support grant.

“This is an increase of P64 787 420 from the previous year. The increase is spread over different votes,” he further stated.

Moshupa East Cllr said further maintenance of grounds and buildings has increased from P8 433 440 in the current financial year to P18 498 990, which is an increase of 119 per cent.

In addition, CllrMasibi informed the House the 2017/18 came with new developments as the council had budgeted for a fire department to a cost of well over P1.5 million  .

Commenting, the councillors embraced the budget proposal and wished it may remain the same for purposes of efficiency  with which Southern District Council chairperson, Mr Alec Seametso concurred.

Cllr Seametso explained the ceiling would be determined by the national budget through the Ministry of Finance and Economic Development. ENDS