Chantelle Fourie-Shawe

News Week ending 2 June, 2017 Plans for City’s R55.9 billion No free water JOBURG – With water, sanitation, property and electricity rates going up, residents will no longer receive their first 6 000 litres (6kl) of water free. This was revealed in the MMC for Finance Dr Rabelani Dagada's first budget speech on 23 May. Increases in the electricity tarrif will be 2.28 per cent, refuse removal sees an increase of 6.1 per cent and property rates will increase by 6.2 per cent. Water, sewage and sanitation services will see a 12.2 per cent increase. "It is important to note that 10.2 per cent of this [water, sewage and sanitaion] was directly passed on to the City by Rand Water, leaving the City with a marginal 2 per cent to cover our operational costs." The decision that households would no longer receive 6kl free water did not come as a surprise. Executive Mayor Herman Mashaba announced that from 1 July, only indigent households would receive free water while non-indigent households would pay for all of their water. The new changes will allow for indigent households to receive between 10kl and 15kl of free water depending on their score on the City of Johannesburg's Poverty Index. Mashaba said households could expect to pay an estimated increase of R42.84 on their monthly water bill. Dagada added with 87.7 per cent of the budget being dependent on revenue raised through these increased rates, the City would be able to generate R320 million more. "It will help to bring water and electricity services to communities that have never had them before. before." by Chantelle Fourie JOBURG – The City of Johannesburg's next budget for the 2017/18 financial year was tabled in Council by the MMC for Finance, Dr Rabelani Dagada on 23 May. The speech outlined the financial goals the City has for the upcoming year, starting 1 July. The breakdown of the R47.3 billion operating budget and the R8.6 billion capital budget is as follows: Infrastructure A three-year capital budget appropriation of R27 billion will ease the 10-year R170 billion infrastructure gap. In the upcoming financial year, R5.2 billion will be spent on upgrading existing infrastructure and a further R3.3 billion was set aside for development of new infrastructure. R4.3 billion will address repairs and maintenance. Services: R162.7 million was allocated to provide electricity and water connections to poor residents in informal settlements, while R482 million goes to Pikitup to clean the settlements over the next three years. A total of 51 settlements, including Alex and Zandspruit, will be upgraded over the next two and a half years. After a capital injection of R1.9 billion, residents will have access to water, sanitation, roads, street names and electricity. Housing: R66 million will help the Site and Service housing development approach, where land is fully provided with services where people can then settle and be given title deeds to build their own homes. Entrepreneurs: The City plans on expanding its SMME hubs from seven to 14, totaling two hubs per region. The R16 million expenditure for these hubs will mean support to more esses. than 1 200 businesses. R8.5 billion has been set aside acilitate small, to invest in and facilitate ro enterprises. medium and macro gada, the City According to Dagada, will not announcee projects tead to create jobs. Instead it will create an environment for economic growth,, of which the City wants to see 5 per cent growth by 2021. 80 per cent of reported potholes within seven working days. In a bid to help displaced people, R9.5 million will be used to create shelters and more skills development centres. Health & Social: Corruption: R118.6 million has been set aside to extend the operating hours of five more clinics over the next two and a half years. The City has also given R30 million to revive drug rehabilitation centres across five regions, including Region B's Westbury Clinic. The office of the City Manager will receive a whopping R956 million operating budget as well as a R236 million capital budget. The investigation of fraud and corruption is one of the many programmes that will be implemented. Roads: R105 million has been allocated to install and repair broken traffic signs, including implementing the no-join policy at intersections. The City aims to see 90 per cent of traffic-related technical faults repaired epaired within 24 hours in n the next th financial year. With side for the 'war R79 million set aside on potholes', the City plans to repair Measures to address inherited issues JOBURG – The City of Johannesburg's now infamous billing crisis will cost R357 million to reimplement its software system and the establishment of more specialised units within the revenue department in the next financial year. This was revealed during the annual budget speech on 23 May by MMC for Finance, Dr Rabelani Dagada, who said the current SAP system, software that runs all the City's business processes, will need to be reimplemented. "The initial implementation of this platform was poorly managed within the City," Dagada said. The system is crucial for the City to be able to manage the crisis. Dagada believes the amalgamation of 16 municipal councils into the current metropolitan municipality attributed to the crisis. When customer data was being centralised so that the City had one profile of a customer instead of different profiles across departments and entities, the information was not correlated. To adddress billing queries, a back office unit within the revenue department was established on 3 April which dealt with 78 479 queries of which 29 491 were between 90 and 365 days old. As of 19 May, the queries have been reduced to 12 600. However, problems soon surfaced again and on 24 May it was announced that the City's customer statement delivery system experienced a major error implicating half a million April accounts. Mayor Herman Mashaba suspected the system was tampered with and instructed authorities to investigate. Other interventions to solve the crisis were also announced: • A technical support services unit will be established to complete billing, accurate and clear invoicing, an effective payment process, credit management, improved customer relationship management and timeous issue resolution • A dedicated revenue nerve centre will monitor the performance of the revenue value chain, detecting revenue losses and escalating BRIGHTWATER COMMONS, NORTHCLIFF SQUARE AND CRAIGHALL PARK LOWER PRICES ON WHAT YOU NEED MOST identified issuess to the technical team ading function will • The meter reading nto the revenue be integrated into shared servicess centre on of with the intention reaching a 95 per nthly cent actual monthly readings targett by March 2018 • Water and electricity bylaws will be reviewed in a bid to reduce the period in which the City is allowed to estimate readings. Finance MMC Dr Rabelani Dagada gives his first budget speech. 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