Last year‚ only 37 people made submissions on on the City of Cape Town’s draft budget. But this year‚ the city will receive more than 600 from Khayelitsha residents alone‚ Social Justice Coalition (SJC) said.
On Thursday‚ hundreds of residents‚ together with the SJC and Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU)‚ will queue at the civic centre to hand over individual submissions on Mayor Patricia de Lille’s 2015/16 draft budget.
“Participation in the budget process is extremely poor‚” the SJC said in a statement‚ adding that it was unclear whether any those who approached the local authority last year were residents of Cape Town’s poor communities or townships.
“Participation is at the heart of democracy. The way that resources are allocated by local government affects everybody’s lives in the most direct ways possible‚” The SJC said.
“The collection of submissions and the discussions with residents of Khayelitsha over the past weeks have been based on significant research on the water and sanitation budget by the SJC and Ndifuna Ukwazi‚ supported by the International Budget Partnership.”
The SJC hoped that the council would‚ as required by the Municipal Finance Management Act “consider these” and urged “the mayor …to respond to the submissions and‚ where necessary‚ revise the budget to be considered by council again”.
600 Khayelitsha residents to hand over submissions on council budget
Last year‚ only 37 people made submissions on on the City of Cape Town’s draft budget. But this year‚ the city will receive more than 600 from Khayelitsha residents alone‚ Social Justice Coalition (SJC) said.
On Thursday‚ hundreds of residents‚ together with the SJC and Ndifuna Ukwazi (NU)‚ will queue at the civic centre to hand over individual submissions on Mayor Patricia de Lille’s 2015/16 draft budget.
“Participation in the budget process is extremely poor‚” the SJC said in a statement‚ adding that it was unclear whether any those who approached the local authority last year were residents of Cape Town’s poor communities or townships.
“Participation is at the heart of democracy. The way that resources are allocated by local government affects everybody’s lives in the most direct ways possible‚” The SJC said.
“The collection of submissions and the discussions with residents of Khayelitsha over the past weeks have been based on significant research on the water and sanitation budget by the SJC and Ndifuna Ukwazi‚ supported by the International Budget Partnership.”
The SJC hoped that the council would‚ as required by the Municipal Finance Management Act “consider these” and urged “the mayor …to respond to the submissions and‚ where necessary‚ revise the budget to be considered by council again”.
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