Ugu District Municipality’s R1.3 Billion budget for the 2016/17 financial year has reached communities through the annual democratic exercise of the IDP and Budget Road Shows which commenced in the beginning of April 2016.
The communities have adhered to the call by Her Worship the Mayor of Ugu District Municipality, Cllr Ntombifikile Gumede to utilise this democratic process for maximum benefit and have constructively scrutinised the people-centred budget voicing their input before the adoption of the budget by Ugu Council.
The Mayor presented a capital budget of R368 157 000, which will aid key municipal strategic focus areas which include among others, asset management and the recuperation of municipal infrastructure and an operational budget of R960 989 992with the main driving costs being provision of quality water and sanitation services.
The District Municipality has set aside R195 800 000 for water services, an amount of R52 269 000 for sanitation services, a sum of R10 000 000 for VIP toilets and R76 928 000 for water pipeline replacements.
The draft budget presented to both the rural and communities of the district highlighted proposed tariff charges of 5.7% across the board for water and sanitation services to be effected in the 2016/17 financial year. The proposed increase is 1.3% less than the 2015/16 financial year. The Mayor said, “This tariff increase across the board is a clear commitment from the municipality of ensuring that all communities have access to these inherent human basic services."
Ugu District Municipality continues implement programmes to fight the triple challenge of unemployment, poverty and inequality. A few highlights is that an amount of R1 500 000 has been provided for youth development initiatives and the Mayoral Bursary Fund sits at R500 000 to assist the youth going to tertiary.
At the completion of the consultative process, the collated community inputs will be considered and the final budget which will be tailored according to the communities’service delivery needs will be presented in May 2016.
Ugu District Municipality promotes working together to create an environment that is friendly, responsive, accountable, effective and efficient for local communities.