ESKOM increases and the added costs of buying bulk water during the current drought will see City of uMhlathuze residents digging deeper into their pockets to meet monthly municipal service charges.
But given these factors and the general state of the national and global economy, the Medium Term Revenue and Expenditure Framework approved at Tuesday’s full council sitting could have been a lot worse.
Council approved the R2.8-billion budget for 2015/16 financial year, which has a strong focus on development.
In his budget presentation, City Senior Manager: Financial Services Mxolisi Kunene said it was important to note that the consolidated consumer account percentage increases are 14%, 12.6% and 8% respectively for high, medium and low income households.
A ‘high income’ household (property rates R1.2m) now paying R3 660 will fork out R4 229 based on 1700kWh of electricity and 45kl of water consumed when the budget is approved in June.
The account for ‘medium income’ (property rates R800 000) will escalate from R1 588 to R1 793 based on 500kWh electricity and 25kl water usage.
‘Low income’ bills (property rates R500 000) will jump from R1 004 to R1 112, based on 350kWh and 15kl.
Kunene said the City is exploring renewable energy initiatives to ensure sustainable revenue streams from electricity, while the drought condition has triggered the need to prioritise a water re-use project within the municipality.
Consumers are warned that they will pay dearly for excess water consumption, with tiered tariffs to encourage savings, while water loss management and installation of meters are also a priority.
‘The census results in 2011 indicated that 86 609 households are within the area of uMhlathuze, yet present water statistics reflect only 39 497 residential water meters,’ said Kunene.
He also spoke on efficient revenue management, which aims to ensure an above 98 per cent annual collection rate for property rates and other key service charges.
Capex projects
Significant expenditure relates to employee costs, mostly staff salaries, and totals R615-million (24.5 per cent of the total operating expenditure).
Allocation for vacant posts not previously budgeted for amounts to R15-million.
Provision of capital expenditure of more than R315-million for infrastructure in various areas was warmly received by Ward Councillors.
These include sanitation, roads (Mandlazini), buildings, walkways and bridges, taxi ranks, bulk services, sport projects, electrification (Mandlazini, Dumisane Makhaye and Mzingazi) and water pipe projects.
Beautification of the City and provision of ablution facilities at Naval Island were also commended.
