On Thursday, 14 March 2019, during Council’s sitting, the City tabled the proposed 2019/2020 Integrated Development Plan (IDP) Review and 2019/20 Medium-term Budget before Council which will now go out for public consultation.
The proposed Medium-term Budget seeks to demonstrate the multi-party government’s commitment to not only ensure that communities gain greater and improved access to services but also aims to encourage our residents’ participation in the budgeting process.
The proposed budget is set at R65,6 billion for the 2019/20 financial year. This includes R57,3 billion in operational expenditure and R8,3 billion in capital expenditure (capex).
Within the proposed budget, major capital expenditure is directed towards addressing service delivery challenges and infrastructure backlogs such as electrification of informal settlements, resurfacing and rehabilitation of the road network, and improving water and sanitation services through sewer network replacements.
The 2019/20 IDP Review, together with the medium-term budget are focussed on advancing the Diphetogo Project introduced in the 2018/19 financial year. Through the Diphetogo Project the City has directed a larger portion of its budget to the most important service delivery and infrastructure requirements of our residents.
The Executive Mayor of Johannesburg, Herman Mashaba said he was “pleased” to announce that in accordance with the Diphetogo Project, the percentage of the capital budget spent on basic services (roads, water, electricity, housing and transport) has grown from 58% in 2016/17, to 71% by 2019/20.
Included in the budget tabled today is the 2019/20 rates and tariff proposals comprised of average increases of 5.5% for property rates, 12.2% for electricity, 9.9% for water and sanitation and 7% for refuse removal.
The electricity tariff increase was driven by the 17.1% increase requested by Eskom, and is expected to be reduced when the final budget is passed in May in light of NERSA’s decision not to grant the request. The City made extensive submissions during the NERSA public consultation process in objection to Eskom’s exorbitant tariff increase request.
This coming weekend, the City will host the first of its IDP Summit which it hopes will bring communities the opportunity to provide their input into the budgeting process – allowing the City to better respond to the needs of communities.
