Earlier today, City of Joburg MMC councillor Julie Suddaby, delivered her first budget speech, unpacking what the municipality has been allocated in terms of capital expenditure for the upcoming 12 months.
Also of interest, is how much the City of Joburg will be increasing its property and electricity rates by, with both set to take effect as if 1st July 2022.
Regarding the former, Suddaby confirmed that property rates will increase by 4.85 percent. A more detailed breakdown in terms of the different classification of policy and what threshold will be exempt are expecting in the coming days, with the municipality making such a document available via its online portal as it has done for 2021/2022 and previous years.
Looking at electricity, which is of course a contentious issue given the current spates of loadshedding experienced across the country, Suddaby said the increase will be 7.47 percent. This is a significant amount less than the previous year’s increase of 14.59 percent, with City of Joburg councillor pointed out.
@JoburgFinance MMC Cllr Julie Suddaby presented her first Budget Speech at the Conny Bapela Council Chamber yesterday.
She told councillors that the City has made the following capital expenditure allocations from the budget,which is approximately R77.3 billion#JoburgBudget2022 pic.twitter.com/ruGwY1A4Tg
— City of Joburg (@CityofJoburgZA) May 26, 2022
As for other spending during the coming financial year, the City of Joburg plans to allocate R1.2 billion and R1.1 billion to roads and electricity infrastructure respectively. It was not, however, mentioned whether the electricity allocation would include plans to move to non-Eskom reliant power.
Other key spending allocations include R930 million on water supply and sewerage, as well as R89 million on sports and recreation.
Given that a total of R77.3 billion has been assigned for the upcoming financial year, all eyes will be on the municipality to ensure money is spent wisely and without corrupt hands entering the coffers.
[Image – Photo by Simon Hurry on Unsplash]
