Month delay in Tshwane adjusted budget may not collapse service delivery, but slows some projects

While political instability in the City of Tshwane has delayed approval of an adjustment budget for a month, a political analyst says this would slow down some service delivery projects but not bring it to a complete standstill.  

The Tshwane metro council was to approve an adjustment budget on February 23, but was delayed due to political instability that ensued after former mayor Randall Williams’s resignation.

The adjustment budget highlights changes in the municipality’s financial plan and tariff increases on services such as refuse removal, water and electricity.  

The budget has not been passed due to the municipality being without a mayor after Dr Murunwa Makwarela resigned on March 10, after a scandal of submitting a fake insolvency certificate to the municipality.

Last week, TimesLIVE reported that a special council meeting to elect a new mayor collapsed after DA multiparty coalition members walked out of the chambers over disgruntlement with the council speaker.

Political analyst professor Dirk Kotze told TimesLIVE, while service delivery to residents would not completely collapse due to the delays, some projects that needed additional money might be negatively affected. 

“This is not the total budget; this is the supplementary budget, and it is supposed to run until the end of June. It brings changes in specific areas where there is shortage or where the municipality needs to transfer money to other things on the budget.” 

Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) lecturer and political analyst Levy Ndou blamed the political chaos on the collapse of the coalition governments.  

Ndou told TimesLIVE recent mayors, Williams, who resigned after damning AG report findings and Makwarela, left Tshwane residents under a dark cloud.  

“In the absence of political leadership, crucial decisions cannot be taken. The residents of Tshwane should be seriously concerned because they elected politicians to better their lives but unfortunately that is not happening.” 

Ndou said the instability in Tshwane showed politicians did not care about the residents.  

“The politicians only look for positions and access to resources.” 

He said the political instability placed the municipality council at risk of being dissolved again.  

“Councils are collapsing every day. We do not have a mayor. It is almost a month now and the work of the municipality is stagnant. This is reason enough for the provincial government to intervene, to save residents from the instability.” 

The council is no stranger to chaos. Between 2019 and 2020, several council meetings collapsed. The municipality was in limbo after former mayor Stevens Mokgalapa resigned due to a sex scandal in February 2020. Council meetings after that collapsed without an adjustment budget being passed.  

In March 2020, the council was dissolved by provincial government and 214 councillors were without jobs for seven months. After several court challenges, the Constitutional Court ruled in 2021 that the dissolution of the council was unlawful and the councillors were later reinstated.

TimesLIVE