“The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and I am positive that this budget is the first step towards a number of things this Council will do right,” said the Executive Mayor of the Greater Oudtshoorn, Alderman Gordon April tabling the draft medium expenditure framework budget for 2012 – 2015 before Council and a packed to capacity gallery at a Special Council meeting last week Friday, 30 April 2012.
Both the draft IDP and budget were unanimously approved by Councillors who attended the meeting. The capital budget for the 2012/13 financial year amounts to R 64M – about R 36M will be funded by National Government, R 26M through external loans and just over One million rand will be own funding. The projected revenue for the operating budget is just over R 430M. The expenditure for the operating budget is R 403, 7 million with a Surplus of R 26 968 000.
Speaking on increase of Tariffs the Mayor said: “It is inevitable to increase tariffs in order for the municipality to be in a position to expand and improve service delivery. We have worked around measures to keep tariff increases at the minimum but the municipality is not in a position to stay within the proposed increase by National Treasury. Oudtshoorn municipality’s revenue base has not grown over the past year, which is also a challenge for the municipality. The huge price increase in bulk purchases, fuel prices as well as the ripple effect the mentioned increases have on the purchase price
of other services makes it impossible for us to stay within a 6% increase.”
The proposed main tariff adjustments are as follows:
Property rates 4.5%
Refuse removal 10%
Sewage 10%
Water units 10%
Electricity 11.25%
Other Diverse Tariffs 10%
It should be noted that the total tariff structure for property rates and electricity will change due to the implementation of the newgeneralvaluation roll which will be in effect on 01 July 2012 and inclining block tariffs for electricity.
Turning to the public in the gallery, Aldm April said that these tariffs are not final as it is only a draft budget, “you must still give your representation to the budget”. The Mayor will host a series of Mayoral Imbizo’s on the draft IDP and budget in all wards the public must be on a lookout for notices that will be issued out this week in newspapers.
Council will also be taking the “Greater Oudtshoorn Vision 2030” which is part of our IDP process to the Public. “It is important that as communities of the Greater Oudtshoorn craft our future as a collective,” said the Executive mayor. The IDP sets out developmental processes, strategies and action plans for the next five years.
