City of Joburg given Friday deadline to table overdue budget

Gauteng MEC for cooperative governance Lebogang Maile said: ‘The failure to pass the budget means that the municipality can’t spend any monies until such time that it has approved the budget’.

More than a week after the budget of the City of Joburg was supposed to be used for service delivery and other programmes, it has not been passed.

In terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act of 2003 (MFMA), a council must approve an annual budget for a municipality before the start of its financial year on 1 July. The budget was not voted for or approved in the council, which has yet to sit.

Now the Gauteng executive council (Exco) has taken a decision to intervene in terms of section 139 of the constitution.

The provincial administration has not applied the harsher section of immediately appointing an administrator to run the affairs of the council. Instead, it opted to give the council until Friday.

Exco also directed that until the budget was approved, the municipality must comply with MFMA section 26(4) and (5), as amended, authorizing the MEC for finance to approve expenditure.

In a statement, Johannesburg Mayor Geoff Makhubo accepted the directives to convene an urgent meeting to approve the budget. He said the city would endeavour to satisfy its obligations and was confident the budget would be passed when the council convened on Thursday.

Gauteng MEC for cooperative governance, urban planning, and human settlements Lebogang Maile said Exco had resolved to invoke the provisions of section 139(4), read with section 139(1)(a) of the constitution.

Section 139(4) of the constitution of the Republic of South Africa Act No 108 of 1996, as amended, compels the relevant provincial executive council to intervene by taking any appropriate steps to ensure the budget or revenue-raising measures are approved.

The steps included dissolving the municipal council and appointing an administrator, and the executive must approve a temporary budget or revenue-raising measures to provide for the continued functioning of the municipality.

Maile said: “Johannesburg is South Africa’s economic hub and the city with the biggest budget. The failure to pass the budget means that the municipality can’t spend any monies until such time that it has approved the budget.”

It is not clear how much the budget was for 2020-21 financial year waiting approval, but the city received R64.5 billion for the 2019-20 financial year.

-The Citizen

In other news – The Queen actor Vuyo Ngcukana aka Schumi spoils himself with a new hot Car – Pictures

Catch Vuyo Ngcukana weaving through the traffic with his new set of wheels. They always say that hard work usually breeds great results, and this notion finally rings true for Vuyo.

The actor has officially joined the Mercedez Benz squad, and he did not post a full snap of his car, instead, he posted sneak peek of the interior, and it looks sizzling. Vuyo said, one day he will tell us the story of how he lost everything, and his kids held me together and kept me going. continue reading