The Democratic Alliance in the Eastern Cape says the ANC-led coalition in Nelson Mandela Bay has yet again shown that it feels nothing for the suffering of poor residents, by slashing its budget for the Assistance to the Poor Programme (ATTP).
The party's provincial leader, Nqaba Bhanga says the amount budgeted in the Metro's 2020/21 sanitation budget is now only half of what the DA and its coalition partners made available between 2016 and 2018.
He says the budget only provides for R373-million - which is a far cry from the R620-million in 2016/17 and R733-million in 2017/18.
Bhanga says the most shocking aspect of the sanitation budget is that only R5-million is budgeted for the eradication of bucket toilets in the new financial year.
He says this decision was taken despite the fact that the Metro needs R76-million to eradicate the 6 000 existing bucket toilets in the metro.
"In addition, the Metro’s 2020/21 budget only provides for R406 million for ATTP water provision. This stands in contrast with the DA and its coalition partners spend of R713,4 million (2016/2017) and R756,3 million (2017/2018) to provide water to households who qualified for ATTP", Bhanga said.
