09 Aug 2020

North East District Council (NEDC) has proposed that two new primary schools be constructed in Masunga and Tati Siding.

Delivering the council’s development budget estimates for financial years 2021/22, 2022/23 and 2023/24 at a special council sitting on August 7, NEDC economic planner, Ms Seipone Matlapeng, said the existing two schools were not coping with the ever increasing population of learners.

Ms Matlapeng indicated that Tati Siding and Bugalo primary schools had an enrollment of 964 and 801 leaners respectively while Masunga Primary School had 795 learners.

That, she said, had led to the said schools being the only ones in the district with double shift programme in effort to comply with COVID-19 protocols.

On the recurrent budget estimates, finance and general purpose committee chairperson, Councillor Kudzani Tobokwani, said the proposed budget of over P2 million would be financed by a revenue support grant of P195 706 731 and an income from own source amounting to P8 363 669.

Clr Tobokwani indicated that the proposed budget had increased by P35 186 550 from the previous year, which translated to 20.8 per cent increase.

He also indicated that over P37 million had been for social and community development due to an increase of food baskets and number of beneficiaries from 1 360 to 1 400 while those eligible for casual clothing increased from 116 to 450.

On education, he said they had proposed over P28 million for procurement of hand sanitisers and extra toilet paper for learners in order to comply with COVID-19 protocols.

He further told the meeting that there would be no major maintenance for primary schools because priority had been given to roads.

He highlighted that proposed income for the previous financial year had decreased from P8 400 030 to P8 363 669 which translated to 0.43 per cent because most tenders were being bought by youth at 50 per cent of P250.

Commenting on the budget proposal, Cllr Mbaakanyi Smart of Mosojane Ward wanted to know when physical layouts for plots would be conducted in some districts to allow for Tati Land Board to allocate plots to youth who had been waiting for years.

Cllr Godfrey Smile of Ramokgwebana Ward commented on the increase in the expenditure where he wanted to know what had led to the over expenditure and what measures would the district put in place to address it.

Responding to questions, Cllr Tobokwani told the meeting that physical planning department had been awarded a total of P700 000 to carry out layouts in order to address the delays in plot allocation.

On the over expenditure, he said such was caused by destitute water bills that were not budgeted for, adding however that would be addressed by future provisions. ENDS