Fred Esbend
Despite the fact that Port Elizabeth is on the brink of financial collapse with municipal service arrears standing at a staggering R600-million, the Nelson Mandela metropolitan municipality has upgraded its executive mayor’s flying status from economy to business class.
Nceba Faku’s upgrade comes at a time when the metropolitan council, which incorporates Uitenhage and Despatch, is considering drastic cost-cutting measures that will have a negative impact on social service delivery, especially in the health sector.
Funding for approved municipal service projects is being revised with salvaged amounts financing cash-strapped projects.
In April the council decided Faku’s national and international flight bookings are to be business class.
Ratepayers, who are already facing prospects of a 16% to 18% rates and services charges increase to keep the municipal budget afloat, will pay for the mayor’s airline comfort.
For example, a South African Airways return flight from Port Elizabeth to London in business class costs R24 670. The cost for an economy seat is R4 300.
The proposed cost-cutting measures could see the closure of clinics and libraries. Road maintenance and refuse collection will also be affected in some areas.
Most alarming are proposed cutbacks in the sewerage maintenance division that will lead to a saving of R5,5-million or 35% of its budget provision. The effect of this could be that 50% to 60% of all sewerage maintenance work will not happen and a quarter of maintenance staff would be retrenched.
Concerned council officials have warned that in the event of technical problems there could be sewage spills of untreated effluent seeping into the Swartkops river estuary or the sea and that could lead to an outbreak of cholera.
The metropolitan council’s finance committee is battling to balance its 2001/02 draft operating budget. Recently a four-member special committee was set up to review the budget and consider options to balance it.
The R1,7-billion draft budget has a shortfall of R100-million. The main cause is the escalating bad debt service arrears of more than R600-million that continue to increase at a monthly average of R15-million.
Heads of all municipal departments were last week asked to identify savings within their departments and to report back to the committee.
Yet a recent meeting gave the green light, subject to the availability of financing, for the purchase of the Pleinhuis building at a cost of R2,5-million. The building, close to City Hall, is to house 10 members of the mayoral committee.
In March, despite objections from the Democratic Alliance, R450 000 was spent on Faku’s inauguration as executive mayor.
Adding to the council’s financial woes is the national government’s intention of acting on its election promises to the poor by providing them with free water and electricity by July 1.
Infrastructure, engineering and energy committee chair Bix Ndoni said although it was hoped that grants would be obtained from the government to pay for this, all residents in the Nelson Mandela metropolitan municipality will get 6 000 litres of water and 50 kilowatts of electricity free.