CHARLES MOLELE and NYAKALLO TEFU
AS the coronavirus crisis wreaks havoc on the lives and livelihoods of millions of residents in Gauteng, the City of Johannesburg is struggling to meet the needs of the people after the council session to pass the Virtual Budget was postponed twice.
The City of Johannesburg, a hung municipality governed by an ANC-led coalition, will not be able to pay for services for its residents until the matter is resolved.
This week, the Gauteng provincial government ordered the City of Johannesburg to convene a sitting and approve its 2020/21 budget by the end of the week.
This came after a plea from Johannesburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo for COGTA, Human Settlements and Urban Planning MEC Lebogang Maile to intervene after the council failed to pass the budget before the start of the new financial year on 1 July.
Speaker of the council, Nonceba Molwele, announced on Tuesday that the provincial government has given the mayor until this Friday to approve the city’s annual budget, with a council meeting now scheduled for Thursday.
If the council fails to pass the budget on Thursday, the provincial government may be forced to place the metro under administration like it did in the City of Tshwane a few months ago.
Several City of Joburg insiders told Inside Metros this week that at the centre of the postponements were several concerns raised by the Economic Freedom Fighters’ (EFF) before the budget could be passed.
These concerns include allegations of corruption, maladministration and nepotism levelled against a number of senior officials of the city, including the Member of the Mayoral Committee (MMC) for Group Corporate and Shared Services Councillor, Loyiso Masuku.
The city insiders, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the EFF is demanding the removal of councillor Masuku as MMC for Group Corporate and Shared Services because she has stacked management with her personal friends and relatives.
The party has called on Makhubo to investigate the allegations against Masuku.
“The executive mayor promised clean governance when he was elected. The firing of councillor Masuku will demonstrate that he is running a clean government,” said another source.
The EFF has also asked the Ethics Committee to investigate the allegations against Masuku, including claims that she personally attended certain job interviews for her friends and relatives.
EFF Johannesburg Chairperson Musa Novela said his party has indeed made several objections to the COJ budget, saying the COJ mayor Makhubo and his council lacked popular support in the city and were ‘tired, lacking in imagination and politically and intellectually weak’.
“The postponement of the City of Joburg budget is proof of what we have been saying since December 2019 when the mayor was elected that you cannot be a governing party if you do not enjoy the popular vote in the Council and the city in general,” said Novela.
“Now the postponement proves what we have been saying all along – that it seems like the Mayor doesn’t even have confidence to table a budget that needs to be voted for because he doesn’t enjoy the popular vote in Johannesburg. That lack of confidence is his conscience reminding him that he doesn’t have the mandate of the majority of the peope in Johannesburg.”
Novela also confirmed that the EFF has laid a complaint of corruption Masuku.
“We have information of a person she [Masuku] is trying to hire as a Group Executive Director of Corporate and Shared Services who happens to be her best friend and we have supporting evidence. That is clear evidence of corruption in the City of Joburg and nepotism,” said Novela.
He said some of the preconditions put forward by the EFF before the adoption of the budget includes prudent financial management and prioritization of service delivery to the poor.
“There is a lot of misprioritization in terms of what they proposed for the budget of 2020-2021. For example, they say less about extending the operating hours of the clinics especially during this pandemic. We want them to operate 24 hours a day to stop the burden of long queues. That is another condition from the EFF.”
On Tuesday, Council Speaker confirmed that the City of Joburg failed to meet the 30 June deadline to adopt the approved budgets.
The now twice cancelled budget meeting was supposed to provide the city with the platform to meet and consider the 2020/2021 Draft Integrated Development Plan, medium-term budget, property rates policy and by-laws of the City.
Molwele has since then issued a Notice of Cancellation based on legal advice as by law, that the Executive Mayor is obliged to inform the provincial MEC of COGTA, and the Gauteng Executive of the failure of Council to approve a budget before the commencement of the new financial year.
Joburg’s 2019/2020 fiscal cycle ended on 30 June, and the municipality is mandated by Section 24(2) of the Local Government: Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) 2003 (Act 56 of 2003) to adopt an approved budget by the first day of the subsequent month.
Molwele said: “The City will await the directive and guidance of the Provincial Executive Council before convening any Council meeting for the consideration and adoption of the 2020/21 budget, Draft Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and other tariffs and matters which ought to have been considered by Council.”
After presiding over a few months of relative peace, Makhubo finds himself facing a city in critical condition, with unemployment soaring, tax revenues plummeting while the devastation by COVID-19 is particularly acute and promises to grind on indefinitely.
In a statement, Makhubo said, “We accept and welcome the directives of the provincial government. The City will endeavour to satisfy all its obligations and we remain confident that a budget will be passed within the timelines set. This will allow us to ensure that the work of providing services to the residents of Johannesburg and responding to the needs of the most vulnerable and poor within the City continues.”
(Compiled by Inside Metros staff)