12 Feb 2024

Selibe Phikwe Town Council’s budget  allocation for the 2023/2024 financial year was P157 million against a proposed budget of about P200.5 million, Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Mr Setlhabelo Modukanele has told Parliament.

Mr Modukanele, who was responding to a question said for the past 10 years the proposed budget submitted by the town council had been more than the actual budget allocation.

He said statistics showed a difference of over P43 million or 21.8 per cent between what was proposed and what was approved from 2013 to 2024 fiscal years.

Mr Modukanele explained that this did not constitute a budget cut because a budget cut was where the approved budget was reduced by a certain amount due to various reasons.

He said since a decade ago the recurrent and development budgets allocated to the town had been fluctuating between 70 and 103 per cent.

Mr Modukanele noted that low budget affected service provision and that town council had over the years prioritised and rationalised spending to ensure that funds were channelled toward funding main services.

He added it was his wish that all councils, including Selibe Phikwe Town Council, were adequately financed.

He, however, said current financial challenges that were experienced both locally and globally made it difficult.

Mr Modukanele said his ministry would continue to strive to fund key services at Selibe Phikwe Town Council, and he also encouraged the council to find alternative sources of revenue to augment the revenue support grant from the ministry.

Selibe Phikwe West MP, Mr Dithapelo Keorapetse had wanted to know how much the town council usually budgeted for, the percentage cut of the proposed budget as well as how much was allocated to the municipality each year since a decade ago.

He also wanted to know how much was for recurrent expenditure and how much was for development.

The MP also wanted the minister to state challenges emanating from low budget and budget cuts for SPTC, and whether he intended to increase the amount allocated for the council, and if so, when and by how much. ENDS