05 Apr 2022

Kgatleng District Council has proposed measures to intensify revenue collection to augment the 2022/23 Revenue Support Grant (RSG) of P147 712 236 by P9 million, council finance chairperson, Mr Joseph Sebina has said. 

Briefing councilors during a special full council meeting recently, he stated that the total budget estimates was initially P206 492 500, but was reduced by over P50 million. 

“This calls for us to come up with ways to increase income stream sources,” he stated. 

Some of the proposed initiatives are to strengthen collection of rental from staff houses, ensure revenue from advertisement inventory reached council as well as collection through bye-law fines. 

Mr Sebina stated that with the new RSG, council had to cut its estimate to align it to the set RSG ceiling. 

He explained that within the set ceiling, council gave priority to COVID-19 measures in primary schools and insurance, and other critical or high spending votes like running and special expenses among others. 

Furthermore, council should cut expenditure on transport costs and vehicle maintenance. 

The budget for the district has been subdivided into four categories with personal emoluments getting the largest share of P103. 5 million, running expenses at P18.9 million, special vote at P27.3 million while establishment expenses would be financed at P6.8 million 

Commenting on the budget, councillors expressed concern over the budget deficit, but acknowledged that it was brought about by COVID 19. Cllr for Pilane, Goitsemodimo Pitse called on the council to capacitate social and community development department to ensure lives were protected. 

Oliphant Drift-Ramotlabaki Councillor, Elizabeth Linchwe stressed the need to capacitate council to ensure the proposed revenue of P9million was realised, while Cllr for Malolwane, Stephen Makhura expressed reservation on the proposed income strategies, questioning the rationale to be used in collecting P9million within one year, owing to hard times exacerbated by COVID 19. 

He also stressed that while council was working on ways to increase revenue collection, people should not be deprived of services. 

Cllr for Sikwane-Mabalane Mr Seth Sekate called for timelines of collections and stressed the need to exceed the proposed P9million.  He also stated that it was time descentralisation policy was implemented to give councils leeway to make their own revenue. BOKHUTLO