The DA would like to congratulate the Kouga Local Municipality on passing a R890 million cash-backed service delivery focussed budget for the 2019/20 financial year.
The forecast for the DA-governed Kouga Municipality over the next three years looks promising, with the municipality’s available cash-backed and accumulated surplus reconciliations reflecting surpluses of R31,008 million for the 2019/20 financial year and R24,115 million and R36,828 million respectively for the two financial years following that.
Kouga’s total operating revenue in 2019/20 will increase to R836,693 million.
The total operating expenditure for the 2019/2020 financial year amounts to R897,137 million, resulting in a budget deficit of R60,444 million.
The Capital Budget for 2019/20 amounts to R93,11 million and once again reflects the strides Kouga has made in strengthening its financial position with 45,1%, or R41,994 million, of the budget being funded from the municipality’s own income. The remaining 54,9%, or R51,117 million, will be funded through government grants and subsidies.
The delivery of quality services to the community is prioritised in this budget.
This is illustrated by the budget for repairs and maintenance amounting to R43,7 million. Of this amount 66,27% will be spent on infrastructure assets. These include road and stormwater, electricity, water, sanitation and solid waste assets, as well as community, sport and recreational facilities.
The municipality also continues to be innovative in its attempts to save the environment.
Kouga will next month start construction on the first plastic road in Africa and is also busy replacing black bags with wheelie bins.
More than 3 200 wheelie bins have already been procured and distributed to Hankey, Patensie and Loerie. More than 7 000 additional wheelie bins will shortly be distributed to Loerie, Thornhill and Humansdorp.
A further R2 million has been budgeted for this project in the 2019/20 financial year.
When the DA took over the government of the Kouga Municipality after the 2016 local government elections, it inherited a bankrupt institution. Since then the municipality has been turned around, is in a strong financial position and has received two consecutive unqualified audit reports from the Auditor-General.
Where the DA governs, it governs well and has a proven track record of speeding up the delivery of basic services.
We make sure that public money is spent on delivering services to the people and is not lost on irregular, unauthorised, wasteful and fruitless expenditure.
Our financial success shows that we govern in the best interest of our residents and that we spend money on service delivery and on improving lives.