22 August 2024
GOOD Press Statement by Anton Louw,
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis should refrain from bragging about the City’s capital budget being the largest in the country since he openly admits it’s unachievable for this.
The mayor today highlighted the significant rollover of capital funding for carry-over commitments from the 2023/24 financial year. He also requested that the Executive Management Team pay close attention to ensure that the affected capital projects are delivered.
He has also in the past made it clear that people will be held accountable if targets are not met.
Yet, at the same time, he argues that the capital budget is set at a level that is difficult to achieve, as you don’t want to set easy targets.
There is no point in putting forward the “biggest capital budget” knowing you could likely only spend about 70% of this. These are not targets, these are funded projects that need to be realized.
On the City’s capital budget, as per the provisional figures, the forecast is R9,68 billion against a budget of R11,3 billion, while actual spending was only R8,8 billion. However, the rollover amount is only R944 million. What happened to the balance of R1,6 billion?
Moreover, nowhere in the law or the rules does it state that items can just be removed from the capital budget without approval. However, we noticed that the Bellville Velodrome, with a budget amount of R25 million over two financial years and of which R8 million was to be spent in 2024, has disappeared from the capital budget for the rollover as well as the approved budget for 2024/25.
For these reasons, GOOD does not support the adjustment budget rollover.
Media Enquiries:
Anton Louw, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
Cell: 082 377 3335
Email: anton@cisfs.co.za
Janke Tolmay, GOOD: Media Manager
Cell: 073 367 1223
Email: janke@forgood.org.za