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Pizza Special (Only Monday-Saturday) - Medium to large R50
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NEWNEW-VI120117
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Donderdag 30 Maart 2017
All dressed up and nowhere to go
Tuesday (28/03) evening’s council meeting errupted into chaos when the six Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) members refused to leave chambers upon being instructed to do so. This followed a previous banning from council chambers in September 2016 for contravening the council’s dress code. The EFF was allowed back on Tuesday evening following the six month ban. They have been disallowed chambers for persisting in wearing their trademark red overalls and hard hats. According to the Standard Rules and Orders (32) of the Matjhabeng Council, councillors must (especially when attending meetings or representing council) wear formal attire, including ties, jackets and neat footwear. Women must wear formal suits and neat footwear. Councillors may not wear clothing which indicates political affiliation. The EFF members told the council they are in the process of obtaining legal advice on the matter. The speaker, Bheke Stofile, was firm in his decision, also instructing some ANC members who were not appropriately dressed to leave chambers. Only two DA members who had written permission to not wear jackets were allowed to stay. See video on the Vista Facebook page. Video: Marti Will
Water to be restricted by 20% Marti Will mwill@volksblad.com
Matjhabeng’s water supply will be restricted by 20% from Friday, 31 March, at 06:00 and every six days thereafter unless the council pays Sedibeng Water R85 million before Friday. This scenario, executive mayor Nkosinjani Speelman said at Tuesday evening’s (28/03) council meeting, was “like trying to extract blood from a rock”. It is feared that the restriction of water supply might cause the higher lying areas of
Matjhabeng, like Riebeeckstad, not to have any water at all because the reduced water pressure might make it difficult for certain reservoirs to fill. At the end of February 2017 Matjhabeng owed Sedibeng an amount of R1,7 billion with a further R1,25 billion owing to Eskom. Despite being billed approximately R35 million per month by Sedibeng, the council only paid R8,7 million for the last two months which is barely enough to cover the interest on the huge outstanding balance. In a letter to Matjhabeng, which was presented during
the council sitting, Sedibeng set out a history of broken promises and unfulfilled undertakings by Matjhabeng towards itself and has drawn an imaginary line in the sand saying: “No more.” Council resolved that the mayor must engage with Sedibeng Water and the minister of Water and Sanitation to try and avert the crisis whilst the acting municipal manager, Thabiso Tsoaeli, was tasked with finding the means to service the arrears and current accounts, a daunting task when considering the budget constraints of council.
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Clean audit still a way off Root of problem must be found Marti Will mwill@volksblad.com
According to the draft budget submitted to the Matjhabeng Local Municipality at the council sitting on Tuesday (28/03), the proposed tariff increase for electricity is 1,88%. All other tariffs and rates will increase by 6,4%. The draft budget and Integrated Development Plan (IDP) will go through a twomonth public participation process where residents and stakeholders can give their inputs and recommendations and raise their concerns. It will then be submitted for final approval by Matjhabeng’s Council before the end of May. The R2,5 billion budget for the 2017-’18 financial year is based on the presumption of an 85% payment rate by residents. The financial reports for January and February reflect only an average payment rate of 57,5%. One of the major challenges Matjhabeng will face, is servicing its more than R3 billion debt owed to Eskom and Sedibeng Water. Both service providers have made it clear that they will no
longer tolerate the accumulation of the council’s already enormous debt. During the council sitting the Auditor General (AG), Noel McCarthy, reported that a R750 million deficit was recorded by the municipality during the 2015-’16 financial year. It was also reported that, for the first time since its inception in 2000, Matjhabeng did not receive an adverse audit opinion. Although all councillors agreed that the improvement on the AG’s report was commendable, they noted that Matjhabeng was still a long way from receiving an unqualified audit report. Concerns raised by the report includes R305 million irregular expenditure and R149 million fruitless and wasteful expenditure (caused mainly by interest on Matjhabeng’s arrear Eskom account). The AG expressed his concerns on the slow response by management to address the root causes of poor audit outcomes and the lack of consequences for poor performance and transgressions by municipal officials.
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