He said the metro was now able to pay its bills and hoped to receive an unqualified audit at the end of the year. He said the cash reserves were currently sitting at R1.8 billion.
“We planning on implementing a surplus budget of R32 million,” added Riordan.
It was indicated that reticulation for housing delivery would amount to R687.6 million. The metro aims to build 6,000 houses by the end of the next financial year.
Riordan said that metro intended to turn Nelson Mandela Bay into Africa’s cultural centre.
The budget provides for R65 million for sports and recreation facilities, with priority areas including Helenvale and Kwanobhule.
“We hope for all 32 libraries to have free WiFi across the metro before the end of this year.”
Riordan said there would be a special focus on taking care of the needs of large numbers of unemployed young people in the metro.
“Many of them are coming through weak schooling systems and then going into labour markets that hardly exist, which is a crisis in its own… to accommodate these youngsters the budget will accommodate for them. We need to put more effort into arts and culture,” he said.
A programme would now be launched that would see two new soccer fields built in the metro every year. In addition, the hockey fields in Gelvandale would undergo refurbishment.
Other projects receiving a big slice of the budget include the tarring of gravel roads for which R170 million has been earmarked, informal housing electrification which gets R106.9 million and electricity infrastructure which gets R357 million. Waste water treatment works gets R417 million and the Integrated Public Transportation system will receive R614.2 million.
Incorporated into this budget is an amount of R20 million for the 2016/17 financial year for the Nelson Mandela Bay metro police force. Riordan conceded that the new metro police had attracted criticism but said it was not unusual for something to be “a bit raw when it just opens”.
Democratic Alliance Caucus Leader Retief Odendaal raised a number of objections to the budget before the vote, and asked, unsuccessfully, that it be delayed by one week for further consideration.
“The reality is that we cannot collect the money that is owed to us. We are heading for another record high where water and electricity losses are concerned,” he said.
“The DA has operational concerns within the administration, after years of continuous mismanagement by the ANC-led government this administration was severely cash-strapped with numerous challenges. Promises were made by Mayor Danny Jordaan to cut corruption, cut water and electricity losses, fix the failed IPTS system, increase our collection rate and finally turn this embattled municipality around,” said Odendaal.
He said that the metro’s collection rate had dropped to an all time low.
“If anything more people owed us money now than ever before, before the arrival of Riordan and Jordaan.
“It was only after receiving the parliamentary questions to the minister of COGTA (co-operative governance and traditional affairs) that it dawned on me that we saved money by not spending any,”said Odendaal.
The Congress of the People and the United Democratic Movement supported the budget.
– African News Agency (ANA)
