EFF and ANC voice their unhappiness over Joburg budget

Johannesburg’s DA-led coalition’s first budget has been criticised for not being inclusive enough.

Member of the mayoral committee for finance Rabelani Dagada delivered what was said to be a pro-poor budget address on Tuesday.

The R55.9bn budget was debated on Thursday before the budget vote was due to take place. The integrated development plan as well as the rates policy and rates bylaws were passed. The operational budget still has to be voted on.

The budget vote is the first crucial test for the coalition government.

Councillors in the different political parties commented on the budget.

Parks Tau, ANC leader in Johannesburg and the former mayor, said someone who listened to the budget address, without looking at the numbers in the budget, would think the budget served only the poor and informal settlements, "belying the reality presented by the numbers under consideration".

Tau also raised concern about the lack of youth development plans in the budget.

Tau told Mashaba that he should look in the mirror "before you look for ghosts to obfuscate this dire situation".

Musa Novela, EFF caucus leader in the council, a crucial voting partner, reiterated his party’s unhappiness with the city’s plan to remove the 6kl of free water to all residents, and to give free water only to indigent people.

He said the budget correctly captured the issues that the people of Johannesburg faced, but argued that the issues had not been dealt with correctly. He was unhappy that joblessness was not addressed in the budget, and that plans for 24-hour clinics were not rolled out.

Novela said the plans presented in the budget were not very different to the former ANC administration’s plans.

African Independent Congress (AIC) councillor Margaret Arnolds said Dagada referred to Saxonwold and Alexandra, extremes of the rich and poor, but that the residents in the middle were forgotten.

She said if the billing crisis were to be resolved, the government should go back to the people on the ground who were promised free water and electricity at the dawn of democracy.

Dagada conceded that the budget was not perfect, but that it answered the question of how people’s lives could be improved.