City budget meeting draws flak
The City plans to spend more than R28 million on bicycle and pedestrian lanes, traffic-calming and pavement maintenance and R1million on road upgrades in Heideveld over the next financial year.
Speaking at a public meeting at Vanguard Community Centre, Sub-council 14 manager and ward councillor Anthony Daniels said the City also planned to spend R300 000 on the fencing of the Third Street park, R100 000 each on improvements to the Foxglove, Olympic Crescent and Gouritz parks, R80 000 on the Diamant sports field, R50 000 on gym equipment for Koperkring park and R30 000 on a sports tournament.
The new financial year, starting from July 1, would also see tariffs for water and sanitation go up by 6.8%, property rates by 5.6%, electricity by 11.8% and refuse by 5.7%.
The meeting was held to discuss the City’s R76.4 billion draft budget for 2024/25, which was tabled on Wednesday March 27 and which the public had until the end of April to comment on.
Some of the 70-odd people who attended the 3pm meeting on Tuesday April 23 said it made no sense to hold it at a time when most working residents would be unable to attend.
“Who made the decision on how our ward allocation gets spent? We didn’t even know about the meeting,” said resident Andre Thomas, who claimed to have only heard about the meeting by word of mouth.
Belinda Langenhoven said residents should have an opportunity to raise their voices about many urgent issues in the community.
“We need a proper agenda so that we can address the issues. We must put infrastructure in place to create smarter communities. In 2017, we requested a park to walk in, a track in the park and a fence. Why must we go to other areas to walk? We need to improve the quality of our parks so that people can make use of them.”
Heideveld Community Police Forum spokesperson Vanessa Adriaanse felt it was unfair for the meeting to continue without better public representation or without those at the meeting viewing minutes from an earlier meeting.
“How could you undermine this community to walk in here without minutes?” she said to Mr Daniels. “ When are you going to stop treating us as uneducated people? There is no agenda. We are wasting our time. You keep making us look stupid and fight with each other. How can we challenge something that we don’t see here? How can we accept minutes that we don’t have? We are fed up.”
Mr Daniels said community groups and residents had been informed about the meeting through newspaper notices, WhatsApp, SMS and email and that a public meeting about the budget had been held in September last year.
Pastor Isaac de Jongh said Heideveld needed a safety plan including more cameras that residents could access.
“Assistance from SAPS and law enforcement is not given. There are lots of injustices from them like breaking people’s doors down. There are lots of issues we need to speak about. We need an unpacking of our ward’s processes, plans, and budgets,” he said.
The 2024/25 budget includes a R4.8 billion social package made up of R2.2 billion in rates rebates and R2.6 billion in indigent relief.
“If yours is one of the 192 500 properties in Cape Town valued at under R450 000, or if your household income is below R7 500, your monthly benefits will include 100% rebate for property rates and refuse removal, 15 kilolitres of free water, 10.5 kilolitres of free sanitation and up to 60 free units of electricity,” mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis told council when he tabled the budget.
The upper qualifying limit in total monthly household income for pensioners and social grant recipients would increase from R17 000 to R22 000, and residents on the City’s Lifeline electricity tariff using over 600 units would pay 44% less – R1.89 less per unit.
“This is to help larger households, backyard dwellers, and those using more electricity in winter,” said Mr Hill-Lewis.
“Thanks to these changes, Lifeline customers using 600 units in a month, will pay R113.94 less compared to two years ago in 2022/23.”
The budget allocates R5.5 billion for safety and security, and Mr Hill-Lewis said the City planned to spend R610 million over the next three years on safety technology including R29.7 million on CCTV cameras, R83.5 million on dash and body cameras, R94.5 million on aerial surveillance, R10 million on gunshot detection, R15 million on drones, and R355 million on its digital rapid response system known as EPIC.
