The people of Ekurhuleni have been left without basic services in excess of R831-million due to ineffective service delivery by the ruling party.
Clr Bruce Reid, the DA spokesperson for Ekurhuleni, said as of December last year, the metro only had 25 days’ cash in the bank.
“We question how is this possible when the debt collection has increased and suppliers are still not being paid in 30 days,” Reid said.
“While revenue is down, the metro collected four per cent more than budgeted on electricity. Water, however, is R156-m or 7.8 per cent below budget. This is a huge deviation the metro needs to investigate.
“In terms of maintenance, how does the department allow the environmental resource management to overspend almost R200-m on their budget? This is almost 500 per cent more than what was budgeted.”
The DA said other departments’ spending has improved and nearly all are on track, except for human settlements and real estate, which have only spent 50 per cent. A worrying sign, Reid said, given Ekurhuleni’s large scale housing projects that are underway.
“On the employee side, R206-m was not spent as a result of the vacant posts that have not been filled.
“The executive is again showing that they do not care about the unemployed in this metro, which continues to grow daily.
“Despite the promises to reduce overtime, nearly all departments have spent more on overtime this year, compared to the same time last year! Where are the implementation measures to curb this?”
Furthermore, Reid reported that on the budget for capital expenditure the departments have only spent R1.5-b out of the budget of R6.4-b.
“The big culprits are economic development, energy, health and social development, which are all below 50 per cent spend while roads and stormwater, waste management and water and sanitation are all below 20 per cent spend.
“People are crying out for services and with funds available for implementation, development and maintenance residents need a governing party that can bring this change,” Reid said.
