Joburg’s Budget expected to put ‘forgotten people’ first
22 May 2017
City of Johannesburg Member of the Mayoral Committee for Finance Cllr Rabelani Dagada will deliver his much-anticipated maiden Budget speech in the new council chamber at the Metro Centre in Braamfontein on Tuesday May 23.
The Budget, which is most likely to top R55.8-billion, is expected to take the cue from Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba’s inaugural State of the City Address (SOCA) in which he committed his administration, through its 10-point plan, to prioritising issues affecting “the forgotten people of Johannesburg”.
The Budget speech also comes after the hosting of more than 35 robust Integrated Development Plan (IDP) meetings and regional summits throughout the city in which residents spelt out in no uncertain terms their service delivery needs and expectations going forward, more specifically in the upcoming 2017-2018 financial year, which comes into effect on July 1.
MMC Dagada has also over the past few months been visiting City entities such as electricity utility City Power and the Joburg Market to assess their budgetary needs and to determine how these would positively impact on or benefit the disadvantaged residents of the city.
His maiden Budget gives the new coalition administration, led by the Democratic Alliance (DA), total control of the running of the City for the first time since the 3 August 2016 local government elections. For the first 11 months of its five-year municipal term, the administration had to make do with a Budget that had been put together earlier by the previous one.
With efforts to grow the economy by at least 5% and reduce unemployment by 6% ranking high on the City’s list of priorities, Dagada is expected to channel a significant portion of the Budget to programmes that will support these objectives, such as growing the small, medium and micro enterprises base by increasing the number of SME Hubs in the city and encouraging investments, especially in the Johannesburg inner city.
As alluded to by Mayor Mashaba in his SOCA, Cllr Dagada is expected to pump more resources into responsive, pro-poor programmes such as the electrification of informal settlements, rolling out of extended hours in clinics, provision of social housing, increasing the Metrobus fleet and expansion of early childhood development, to name a few.
Entities expected to benefit the most from the 2017-2018 Budget include waste management company Pikitup to enable it to introduce extra shifts, especially in the Johannesburg inner city; Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department to recruit more personnel to fight crime; and the Johannesburg Roads Agency (JRA) to eliminate potholes and mitigate against costly traffic snarl-ups.
Although rates and services are most likely to go slightly up, Cllr Dagada is expected to announce measures that will help cushion the poor, especially in light of the prevailing harsh economic conditions.