REFILWE MEKOA
The Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality said it has increased the budget substantially on maintenance and infrastructure refurbishment issues.
According to Mayor Thabo Manyoni, residents need to make sure they maintain already existing infrastructure, instead of wasting it and expecting the municipality to build afresh. Manyoni was addressing hundreds of residents who were gathered at the Bloemfontein City Hall on the metro’s budget allocation last week.
The total Mangaung budget for the 2014/2015 financial year is R6.6 billion and the roads and water project have received the biggest amount of R566 million. Manyoni said they are focusing on maintaining roads, water and electricity infrastructure.
“We would be ensuring that we provide clean water in all the areas. We will also make sure that all former black townships are formalised to be decent places for human settlement,” he said.
Manyoni told Courant that they plan to ensure that whenever new residents arrive to the city, they get to settle in an already formalised area. His plan is to make certain that informal settlements never exist within a metropolitan municipality and he added that some people will be moved to areas closer to the city.
“We plan to also formalise local churches along with schools to get prepaid meters in a bid to avoid the accumulating debt on services such as electricity. Many schools and churches owe the municipality a lot of money and if the council approves that both institutions obtain prepaid metering, it will be a start of ensuring that we curb the increase of debt,” he added.
Manyoni also emphasised that he will be bringing back the dignity of Botshabelo residents by removing the existing bucket system. He said the municipality has allocated R27.2 million for the establishment of new parks that will be at Kagisanong in Bloemfontein, Selosesha Regional Park in Thaba Nchu, which will allegedly be one of the biggest parks in the municipality and the Section B Park that will accommodate the first community swimming-pool in Botshabelo.
The DA and the Freedom Front Plus felt the council meeting was more of an ANC event and state funds were being misused.
