The African National Congress (ANC)-led Ekurhuleni council has been slammed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) for wanting to take out a loan for R1,1-billion.
In a statement on Friday, DA caucus leader in Ekurhuleni Eddie Taylor suggested that the council rather collect money owed to it by residents who did not pay for services.
Taylor said the DA was tired of listening to ”empty promises” from the ANC to improve revenue collection, which had hovered at the mid-80% level for years.
He said that it made no sense to borrow money and pay interest and redemption charges while the council was owed billions in unpaid service charges.
The DA team in the finance portfolio, under the leadership of Felix Pretorius, had consistently called for the municipality to take a tougher stance with residents who refused to pay for their services, the statement said.
”The DA team told the ANC that we would not support a request for a loan until we see a realistic, workable plan to increase the metro’s revenue.
”To date we have not seen such a plan so we will not support this loan request,” Pretorius said.
He added that it was not ”right” that only some residents were called upon to pay while others were allowed ”a free ride”.
”This situation must change before we will agree to such large loan funding,” Pretorius added.
According to Taylor, the metro was not able to spend all the money that was provided in the budget.
”Year after year the capital expenditure only reaches 85% of the budget. In the current financial year with just two months left only 45% of the budget has been spent. There is, therefore, no point in over-borrowing if the money will not be spent,” Taylor said. — Sapa