Mayor’s budget gets the nod

ANC goes AWOL in Joburg council

Mayor Herman Mashaba’s budget has finally got the green light after the ANC went AWOL.

The City of Johannesburg passed its budget as the former ruling party staged a walkout yesterday. The ANC, which opposed the budget, failed to return to council after the lunch break of the third council meeting in two weeks.

The council finally passed and adopted the revised tariffs, operational and capital budgets and Integrated Development Plan (IDP) for the 2018/19 financial year.

With 137 councillors present in council, Mashaba managed to form a quorum, in compliance with the Municipal Finance Management Act.

The mayor had managed to convince the EFF to vote in favour of the budget after their inputs were considered, with the initially proposed water and electricity tariffs rates being lowered as per the red berets’ demands.

The EFF had abstained in voting for the budget previously while the ANC and other smaller parties – AIC, Al Jamah and Patriotic Alliance – rejected the budget, forcing the city to reconvene a third council meeting.

The ANC, however, still rejected Mashaba’s budget as it found it to be “anti-poor” and “not funded”.

ANC councillor Geoff Makhubo requested a fiveminute caucus break as the budget was being debated in council. He had argued that the budget was “skewed to benefit the rich and those who can afford”.

However, after the DA had also requested an hour to have its caucus meeting, speaker Vasco da Gama then adjourned till after lunch, but the ANC failed to return to council.

ANC spokesman in Johannesburg Jolidee Matongo told Sowetan that they opted not to return to the meeting because they refused to be part of a “process which sought to approve a budget we deem to be unfunded”.

He criticised the city for only considering input made by the EFF while theirs and those of other parties were ignored. “When the EFF says something, the mayor jumps and the EFF gets what it want,” Matongo said.