De Lille to table city’s R44.3bn draft budget

TRANSPARENCY is the objective in the city council’s multibillion rand draft budget, with a breakdown of how the money would be spent in each of the four quadrants the municipality is divided into.

Mayor Patricia de Lille is expected to table the R44.3 billion draft budget, which is first going to be debated, for adoption next Tuesday. It includes a more than R2bn capital expenditure budget, which is proposed to be spent on the four areas, namely the north, east, central and south regions.

The areas were announced as part of the city’s Organisational Development and Transformation Plan (ODTP), which De Lille hopes will also accelerate service delivery. “The ODTP also enhances transparency because this year we are able to take a draft budget to people which clearly shows how much money is spent in each area, and also how the transformational priorities have underpinned the way we propose the budget should be allocated.”

Capital projects in area north included a new city depot, the construction of a library while the east area could look forward to congestion relief projects, as well as a new housing project. There were also more than 20 projects in the pipeline for the central and south districts.