01 April 2009

For immediate release

Hibiscus Coast Municipality Mayor, Cllr NF Shusha tabled a draft budget of 2009/10 financial year in council

The Mayor of Hibiscus Coast Municipality (HCM), Councillor NF Shusha tabled a draft budget of the 2009/10 financial year on Tuesday, 31 March 2009 during a full council meeting which was held in Port Shepstone at 09:00.

As required by Section 16(2) of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA)  the Mayor is expected to table a draft budget at least year 90 days before the start of the budget year. As always Mayor Shusha in the presence of the Speaker, Deputy Mayor Cllr Johnnie de Wet, Cllr Ronnie Nair, councillors, Municipal Manager, heads of departments, managers, guests and members of the media gave a comprehensive presentation of the budget.

This budget is largely informed by the needs of the HCM community, needs which were recorded during last November’s Mayoral Izimbizo meetings. Each and every year the Mayor conduct these meetings, collect and record information and then respond accordingly. This draft budget was answering questions regarding the progress made in the quest to achieve the objectives to which HCM honestly told its communities that it is committed to.

Madam Mayor said, “We will strive together with our people so that eventually we achieve the goals that we set together hoping to reap the democratic rewards. I would like to encourage our officials to put more effort so that our people don’t only see political change after April 22 but they also witness change on delivery. We come a long way but we cannot afford to invite unnecessary criticism therefore we should continue to make significant progress in terms of delivery of infrastructure and services to all our communities. We have come up with a budget that strives to ensure that we spread our financial resources to reach every corner of Hibiscus Coast Municipality, so our people can again see the difference we are making.

Last year we responded to the demands and made necessary changes which saw us changing our age old culture of holding seven cluster meetings. We conducted 14 cluster meetings where we met and spoke to hundreds of our people and in the process recording their needs. This means that we penetrated our communities more than we have ever done before. The budget we are tabling today comes from these collective needs”.  

In terms of section 24 of the Municipal Finance Management Act, act no 56 of 2003, which mandates the Council to approve the annual budget at least 30 days before the start of the new financial year. She pointed out that the draft budget she is presenting seeks to achieve three main objectives:

1,  to ensure continued and improved service delivery to our people;

2, to make a sound investment in our infra-structure and accelerate the   repair and reconditioning of our roads network;

3, we want to ensure that our staff and internal departments are given the support and resources they need to better serve our people.

She thinks that considering changes in property rates, municipalities need to take cognizance of local economic conditions such as the down turn in the property market, trends in household incomes and unemployment.   Excessive increases in property rates and other tariffs are likely to be counterproductive, resulting in higher levels of non-payment and increased bad debts.

She went on to say that, municipalities must also explore imaginative ways of structuring the tariffs for utility services to encourage more efficient use of these services and to generate the resources required to fund the maintenance, renewal and expansion of the infrastructure required to provide the services. National Treasury continues to encourage municipalities to keep increases in rates, tariffs and other charges as low as practically possible.   For this reason National Treasury continues to require that municipalities must justify in their budget documentation all increases in excess of the 6 per cent upper boundary of the South African Reserve Bank’s inflation target.

Council has two (2) months to deliberate and consult communities on this budget and both councilors and the public are expected to make meaningful contributions to it.

NB: A copy of this draft budget is available from HCM.

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Issued by :                  Hibiscus Coast Municipality

Communications Unit

Contact Person:        Mr Xolani Dlangalala

            Tel:      (039) 688 2033

                                    Email: xolani@hcm.gov.za