The City of Tshwane says it is working towards reducing a R4 billion deficit and a R2 billion shortfall for the current financial year. The City says the deficit and shortfall had been left by the administrators who had been in office last year.
The City says it is currently considering which critical vacancies to fill while implementing an aggressive strategy to fix water infrastructure to prevent further costs caused by leaks and breakages.
City of Tshwane residents have been struggling to access water:
The City says it also plans to reduce the overtime hours of staff and introduce a shift system. Tshwane Mayor Randall Williams says the City is in a financial crisis and they are working on an adjusted budget.
“It has been three months since the Democratic Alliance returned to govern the City of Tshwane. Upon our return to office in the City, we discovered that not only did the ANC administrators who were in the office in the interim leave us with a R4 billion deficit for the last financial year ending 30 June 2020, but also left us with a shortfall of more than R2 billion for the current financial year that started on first July 2020.”
Meanwhile, the former lead administrator Mpho Nawa denied the City’s claims. Nawa says money had been spent on service delivery.
“They are just politicking. There is no truth about what they are saying about the R4 billion. When we came there in Tshwane there was serious underinvestment on infrastructure and we had to see to it that we focus on the process of investing in the people of Tshwane, particularly for those communities that are on the outline. We had to provide water across the entire City including to those who the City couldn’t provide water to. So we had to spend on that.”
