Who are the winners and losers in Bay’s adjusted budget?
Some areas cut off from vital upgrades Council ends abruptly after fiery war of words
Crucial projects for some of the city’s poorest areas were sidelined while others gained more funding as the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality rejigged the 2023/2024 budget on a day that culminated in a fiery exchange between councillors.
The council meeting ended abruptly as a result of the tense spat between GOOD councillor Lawrence Troon and the EFF’s Khanya Ngqisha, who almost came to blows during a debate on a motion of no confidence in mayor Gary van Niekerk.
The exchange, which unfolded in front of the microphone, escalated quickly, prompting others to intervene and separate them.
It all started when Troon called EFF councillor Ncebakazi Walla a “rude thing”, causing Ngqisha to rise from his chair and tell Troon off for his language.
But Troon questioned Ngqisha, hurling accusations of fraud and theft at him.
“Who are you? I am saying so. I am telling you. What are you going to do? You fraudster. You thief.”
As tempers flared, both continued with a heated verbal exchange while fellow councillors attempted to keep them apart.
This prompted speaker Eugene Johnson to adjourn the meeting before any vote could be taken on the motion.
Meanwhile, the approved 2023/2024 adjustment budget met the legislative deadline, set for the end of February.
Of the city’s R18.7bn adjustment budget, R16.9bn is earmarked for operational costs, while R1.8bn is allocated for capital projects.
This comes as the expenditure for purchasing and installing water meters has surged to R123.9m, originally budgeted at R69.5m.
Among the hardest-hit areas cut off from vital infrastructure upgrades are Zwide, Wells Estate, Khayamnandi, Jachtvlakte, Seaview and Bethelsdorp.
In Zwide, the initial budget allocation of R9.4m for bulk stormwater upgrades was subsequently cut to R4.4m.
In Wells Estate, the funding for a crucial access road project linking Tyinirha and Bhunga roads was completely reduced, despite an initial budget allocation of R1m.
Only R500,000 was allocated for the reconstruction of Old Uitenhage Road, intended for use by IPTS buses, marking a significant reduction from the original budget of R18m.
The Bay’s Integrated Public Transport System suffered a significant blow in the adjusted budget, with funds plummeting from R185.2m to R88m.
The revised budget factors in the reduction in the urban settlements development grant (USDG), informal settlements upgrading partnership grant (ISUPG) and IPTS grant.
This totals R226m with the grants reduced by the National Treasury in October.
However, R42.5m from the USDG and ISUPG that were unspent during the 2022/2023 financial year were approved for rollovers.
But the metro still stands to lose R523m in grant funding if it fails to convince the National Treasury that it will spend its budget on time.
National Treasury deputy director-general responsible for intergovernment relations, Malijeng Ngqaleni, informed the city about the decision in a letter sent to now suspended city manager Noxolo Nqwazi on February 12.
It wants to stop the allocation of seven different funds to the city due to underperformance.
The budget still includes the R523m in grant funding.
There was also a shift in focus towards service-delivery-orientated departments such as public health, human settlements, water, and sanitation, all of which received increased funding in the revamped budget.
Some of the winners in the adjustments are KwaNobuhle’s area 11 which received additional funding for infrastructure developments for roadworks, along with stormwater and sewer reticulation. This totals R38.1m. Areas such as Walmer Airport Valley also received allocations for roadworks, stormwater reticulation as well as sewer reticulation projects worth R30m.
Featuring prominently in the adjustment budget is Bayland as the city prepares to install several services at the informal settlement outside KwaDwesi.
The council approved the reallocation of funds designated for a project in Walmer to an electrification project in Bayland.
According to a report by Van Niekerk, the Walmer project — which did not include any details — was not ready to start.
“For the 2023/2024 financial year, the electricity and energy department through the ISUPG business plan made a budget request of R10m to complete the installation of electrical infrastructure and commence with service connections in Bayland informal settlement
with the electrification of about 500 units.
“The budget request for Bayland undeclared information electrification was not approved as per the approved business plan.
“A new capital budget needs to be created as part of the 2023/2024 capital adjustment budget. This will mitigate the risk of service delivery protests, infrastructure damages and electricity losses.”
While tabling the new budget, budget and treasury political head Buyelwa Mafaya said the adjustments spoke to the budget tabled on June 17 2023.
“There’s nothing new. There are no new projects.
“It is only money in the directorates that we have played with.”
The metro has adjusted its operational budget due to a revenue boost of R336m but reduced its capital expenditure by R187m.
DA councillor Retief Odendaal said capital spending was at 26% with only four months to go until the end of the financial year.
“We have spent only a quarter of our capital spending in eight months.
“It is a mathematical fact that we will forfeit grants and it is a certainty this city cannot deliver services.”
AIC councillor Thsonono Buyeye said the operational budget spending was sitting at more than 50% but opposition parties overlooked this.
“We support this adjustments budget as the AIC.
“This is an adjustments budget of just over R18bn and the capital budget is R1.8bn even though we understand the concerns of low expenditure of the capex budget as most are grants that we should be spending. There is another part of the adjustments budget which is R16.9bn which noone is talking about.”
The operational budget also includes staff salaries.
ANC councillor Gamalihleli Maqula said he supported the budget but it was important to self-criticise.
“We won’t be doing justice if we can stand here and say all is well in our townships.
“We are faced with a high number of potholes and we were here last year.
“We have been unable to build toilets in the city for the past three years.
“You’ve given this directorate to the fighters [the EFF] and we have received no indication of when toilets will be built.
“Leave the fact that we can’t even purchase chemical toilets.
“If you go to Motherwell, you’ll find hundreds of people sharing one toilet and that is a disaster.
“The issue of sanitation is a human rights issue,” Maqula said.
While tabling the motion that called for the removal of Van Niekerk, Troon said the mayor had damaged rented and municipal vehicles during weekends.
“It’s the first time we have had such a reckless mayor of the metro. My motion says he is incompetent,” Troon said.
In the motion, Troon lambasted Van Niekerk for service delivery failings under his leadership, saying his tenure had been characterised by incompetence. AIM councillor Khusta Jack seconded the motion.
ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom accused Van Niekerk of being the worst mayor the metro had ever had.
“He is a total embarrassment to the residents of the northern areas.
“He’s an embarrassment to the coloured communities because he is doing nothing.
“What describes him best is when he was standing with the mayor of chocolate bunny town book which explains everything about him.
“He is the mayor of the bunny chocolate town. He thinks Nelson Mandela Bay is a chocolate bunny town he can use to loot.”
Van Niekerk was photographed reading Mayor Bunny’s Chocolate Town on the world’s largest floating bookshop, Logos Hope, after it docked at the Port of Port Elizabeth earlier this month.
Johnson demanded Grootboom withdraw the remark but he refused.
Defending Van Niekerk, Ngqisha said the motion was not worth the paper it was written on.
“What the mover said vs what the speaker said is something completely different.
“He’s freestyling. When you present a motion, you read what you’ve written and not freestyle.
“Second, the motion itself is a bunch of rumours [with] no factual evidence to support everything he said.
“It’s like we’re listening to a storyteller,” he said.
Afterwards, Van Niekerk said opposition parties would just keep bringing motions that would be defeated.
“Their motions have no basis. We encourage them to bring more motions because it only serves one purpose.
“If you listen to all the comments, parties that spoke from our coalition will vote against the motion.
“They’ve said they won’t support [the motion]. It is irrelevant,” he said.