Chaos at Plumtree pre-budget meeting

Sukulwenkosi Dube Plumtree Correspondent
PLUMTREE Town Council has proposed to hike water tariffs in a bid to boost the local authority’s revenue base amid revelations the border town council only managed to collect 20 percent of this year’s projected budget.

The town council was working with a targeted budget of $3,645,661 for 2014.

The proposed tariffs were revealed at a 2015 budget consultation meeting held at the town council offices yesterday.

At the meeting, a heated argument arose when participants refused to make contributions unless the council produced an audit report for the years 2011 to 2013.

The disgruntled groups comprised business association, residents’ association, taxi association, clearing agents and members of religious groups.

“We can’t be expected to be making contributions towards the (2015) budget when we don’t get feedback on whether the money was properly used. We’re aware that the audit report came out in August but as stakeholders we’ve not seen it,” said a member of the business community.

The town secretary, Davis Dumezweni Luthe, who was not part of the proceedings, had to be called in to explain the audit report.

Luthe said the audit report was not yet open to the public as it had to go through several phases of verification first.

During the budget consultation meeting, the local authority proposed to raise water consumption charges for residents from $0.06 to $0.30 per cubic metre depending on whether the suburb is low density or high density.

The commercial sector water charges would increase to $0.20 from $0.16 per cubic metre while the industrial area water charges would increase to $0.21 from $0.17 per cubic metre.

Councillor for Mathendele area, Cornelius Nyathi, said the increases were justified as the council was incurring high costs when processing and treating water.

He said Zinwa had also increased their charges for raw water.

Nyathi said 80 percent of residents were not paying their water bills and as a result the council was struggling to provide the commodity to consumers.

He said the local authority had several projects which were lined up for the year which are not complete because of financial constraints.

Nyathi said out of 16 projects which were lined up, four failed to kick off while 14 were still underway.

He said the target which was set by the council at the beginning was to have all the projects ongoing and some completed by year end.

Stakeholders requested for a reduction of vendors’ rent from $0,50 a day to $0,20 after noting that it translated to $15 a month.

Meanwhile, the council has proposed 22 projects with an estimated cost of $7 million. These include refurbishment of Dingumuzi Stadium, rehabilitation of public toilets in the town and at the border, installation of street lights and tower lights, construction of a school and roads, among others.

The council will begin budget consultations in various wards soon.