ActionSA supports Tshwane Adjustment Budget to pass

28 February 2022  

After days of impasse over the Tshwane Adjustment Budget, ActionSA has resolved to support the budget on the basis of a number of important accommodations that have been made at the last minute.

The accommodations have included R20 million further funding for the provision of rudimentary services to informal settlements to provide water and sanitation. The budget line item will move back to Human Settlements where it was originally located.

Further accommodations were made to increase the budget available for relocating informal settlements, with the budgeted funds available effectively doubling.

In light of the issues of contractor performance on the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant (the project addressing the Hammanskraal Water Crisis), the coalition have agreed to the following in writing:

Ensure the completion of an investigation into the award of the tender for phase 1 of the Rooiwal Wastewater Treat Plant upgrade to a joint venture including Edwin Sodi.

The aggressive scale-up of funding for phase 2 of the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plan upgrade for the next financial year beginning in July 2022.

The multi-party coalition have provided written assurances in respect of the acquisition of land for the Mamelodi Flood Victims. These assurances recognise that the return of funds locked in litigation on this matter will take time and that the project must be fully funded for the new financial year beginning in July 2022. In the interim it was agreed that everything possible would be done to provide rudimentary services to improve the quality of life of the flood victims.

ActionSA is pleased that victories have been secured for the residents of Tshwane affected by these critical budget line items. It is regrettable that we had to resolve not to support the budget first in order for our service delivery requirements to be heard.

We will be working with other political parties in the coalition to ensure better processes for the submissions and engagements around budget inputs for the 2022/2023 financial year. In the process we trust that it will be understood that ActionSA has its own constituencies and its own manifesto both of which must find respectable expression in the budgets and plans of our multi-party coalition budgets. If this is done to the benefit of the residents of Tshwane, ActionSA will provide nothing short of our full support.

Issued by Michael Beaumont, National Chairperson, ActionSA, 28 February 2022