JOBURG BUDGET SLAMMED
Plans not pro-poor, say parties
MULTIMILLION-RAND plans to introduce pre-paid water and electricity meters throughout Johannesburg were slammed by opposition parties yesterday.
During member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for finance Geoffrey Makhubo’s R40-billion budget tabled on Wednesday, opposition parties dismissed some of the projects announced in the budget as “unjustifiable ”, “unwarranted ” and detrimental to the poor.
Pan Africanist Congress councillor Lehlohonolo Shale indirectly accused the city of having an agenda against the poor.
Shale said the city’s insistence on rolling out pre-paid meters was not pro-poor, urging the authorities to shelve the plans. But Makhubo insisted “this will not happen”.
Shale said: “It is a long way off before we say this budget represents the people’s budget.
“The policy of pre-paid meters is neither pro-poor nor pro-development. It should be scrapped.”
Shale’s comments drew a sharp but measured rebuke from Makhubo, who argued that the meters were exactly what poor Johannesburg residents needed.
“We want the residents of Joburg to manage their own [water and electricity] consumption. Water is a scarce resource. It is exactly why pre-paid meters are important,” said Makhubo.
The city’s power utility, City Power, announced it would embark on a R1.25-billion three-year project to introduce smart electricity meters – which will also include prepaid meters as an option – in about 250 000 households.
Delivering her speech yesterday, MMC for environment and infrastructure Matshidiso Mfikoe defended the city’s plans.
She said although metering would eventually cost R400-million, it was necessary to prevent further losses of water and electricity.
Democratic Alliance shadow MMC for infrastructure Denis Hunt lambasted the city’s metering plans as an expensive and unnecessary exercise intended to benefit friends of President Jacob Zuma.
He said new meters were coming at the expense of upgrading the city’s ageing infrastructure.
“We can only conclude that the plan to flood the city with smart meters cannot be justified, and gives credence to the suspicion that this is simply another unjustifiable and unwarranted exercise to feed the appetite of those close to the president,” said Hunt, who was subsequently derided for his remark.
The auditor-general’s 2011/2012 report found that the city lost R805million in potential water revenue, with the losses attributed mainly to “consumption areas [Soweto and Alexandra] that are not metered”.
Electricity theft robbed the city of R663-million in revenue, while age- ing infrastructure resulted in the loss of R709-million due to a “loss in the distribution network”. –