Budget Speech by the Executive Mayor: Mr. Thabo Makunyane
Date:  31 May 2005

Honourable Speaker
Fellow Councillors
Colleagues
Ladies and Gentlemen of the Media,
Distinguished Guests.

Welcome to this, the fifth budget session of Polokwane Municipality, which also happens to be our last.

It is important in this session to pause and look back at the distance we traveled since 2000. We have to look back at our achievements and challenges over the past four years.

In the words of Karl Marx: “Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given and transmitted from the past. The tradition of all dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brain of the living”

In December 2000 we embarked on a journey to play our part in building a new South Africa – a united and democratic South Africa free of racism and sexism – A South Africa that belongs to all who live in it united in their diversity.

On this journey our point of departure was and continues to be the fundamental belief that our people have it in their power to continually change their environment and to build a better life for all. As an organ of a developmental state, all our efforts to transform our society must be people-centered, people-driven and gender sensitive.

Our efforts were therefore guided by the overarching aims of:

1)     Deepening our democracy and culture of human rights by mobilizing our people to take active part in changing their lives for the better.

2)     Consolidating democratic control of state machinery to serve the cause of social change.

3)     Promoting economic growth, development and redistribution, to improve our people’s quality of life.

4)     Seeking the support of progressive forces to promote, deepen and defend our transformation.

To this end, we have based our strategy on our people as the basic motive force for reconstruction and development. Our efforts continue to aim at working with our people to unite, to organize, to educate, to mobilize them and to empower them to be the driving force of social transformation.

In 2000 we came into office to create a new municipality called Polokwane – we inherited a collection of institutions ranging from the typical apartheid edifice of Pietersburg/Polokwane TLC which was focused on servicing and protecting the interests of a privileged minority to the grotesquely under-developed Moletjie-Matlala and Mashashane Maja-Chuene TLCs.

In reality we inherited an island of white privilege and affluence surrounded by no less than 166 under-developed and neglected rural villages, which served mainly as a repository of cheap labour.

We inherited vast backlogs in water services, sanitation, housing, roads and storm water, sports and recreation. We inherited unemployment, powerlessness and poverty. This is the legacy of apartheid, the cold dead hand of apartheid that continues its firm grip on the lives of our people.

Our immediate task in dealing with this legacy was to strive to meet the basic needs of our people – water, electricity, roads, sports and recreation. We also had to promote local economic development to meet their need for jobs and other economic opportunities. We had to mobilize and empower them to take the bull by the horns and to play an active part in the improvement of their own lives. But to achieve these, we had to build and transform the vehicle of this very transformation – the municipality itself. Comrade Speaker, such was the magnitude of the task we faced as we embarked on this journey 4 years ago.

Our Integrated Development Plan was therefore based on these four pillars:

1)     To meet the basic needs of our people

2)     To promote local economic development

3)     To mobilize and empower our people to take charge of social transformation

4)     To build and transform the vehicle of this transformation

Amilcar Cabral cautions us that we must never claim “easy victories”. But today we can say with pride that our efforts over the last four years have touched the lives of every man, woman and child in every corner of our municipality.

Basic Services

Over the last four years we have spent over R158m on the provision of potable water, targeting mainly the most neglected and under-developed villages – where we have succeeded in bringing the water service level above RDP standard, from 32.2% to 59.1%.

Over the coming three years we shall be spending another R140m to ensure that we meet the presidential target of 100% at or above the RDP standard by 2008. But rapid infrastructure expansion has operation and maintenance implications, which if not well understood and correctly accommodated, may jeopardize the sustainability of the infrastructure itself.

As we build the water infrastructure in many of the previously neglected rural villages, we have to understand the financial implications of operating these infrastructures, i.e. to pay for electricity or diesel supply for borehole pumps and to purchase bulk water from Lepelle Water Board. These expenses have become the bane of the lives of many communities, causing divisions and destructive contradictions in many villages.

It is our intention, as from July this year, to relieve our communities of this burden. As from July this year we undertake to implement Free Basic Water in full throughout Polokwane Municipality by paying all electrical and fuel costs for boreholes and the Lepelle Water Board for all bulk water supply to these rural villages. This will ensure that even the poorest of the poor will receive a basic water supply. In those areas where the level of service has reached yard connection level, in this year we shall start with the billing of individual households according to consumption.

But Free Basic Services does not aim to kill the spirit of Vuku’zenzele. It is not intended to extinguish the basic truth that the people are their own liberators and that they must take charge of the processes of reconstruction and development. Over the coming months, together we shall develop and refine the role that communities have to play in the maintenance of their infrastructure, for which they have to take responsibility.

In this financial year, the work of bringing water to our people will continue with new connections, further reticulation and upgrading in 51more rural villages and urban areas.

Electricity

Over the last four years we have spent over R76m on new household connections, upgrades, refurbishment and street lighting.

We have managed over this period to connect 3 700 low-income households in our license area and to accommodate new developments in Flora Park, Ivypark, Bendor, Sterpark, Woodlands, CDB, Welgelegen, Seshego Zone 5 and many other areas. Over this period the capacity of the present electricity supply line has become overburdened. We are therefore finalizing our negotiations with Eskom for a second electricity supply line.

Still in the electricity sector we are in the process of ring-fencing our electricity functions in preparation for their migration into the Regional Electricity Distributors in the coming years.

Major challenges have been encountered in rural electrification where over the last four years Eskom has connected over 11 000 households. Funding for this programme has slowed down but the demand has become more urgent. As the authority saddled with responsibility for this function, we are holding discussions with the Dept of Minerals and Energy and Eskom on this matter.

Sanitation

Sanitation is said to be the source of dignity. But poor sanitation can result in the spread of diseases, contamination of water resources and degradation of the environment. In the past four years we have concentrated our resources on urban sanitation and water borne sewerage systems. This was mainly because of lack of internal capacity to conceptualise and implement an appropriate rural sanitation programme.

The backlog, as identified in our Water Service Development Plan stands at approximately 70%. In the 2005 – 06 financial years we have put aside R5m for rural sanitation as a first step in our push to tackle this unacceptable backlog.

In the CBD and other urban areas we continue to upgrade and refurbish existing systems and in this year we will also start with the planning of the new regional sewerage treatment plant that will accommodate the growth of our city and the surrounding settlements.

Roads and Stormwater

Roads are an important means for our people to access services, jobs, facilities, markets and goods. Road transport is also an important means of livelihood for a sizable percentage of our population. Because of apartheid spatial distortions, the poorest sections of our people also spend a disproportionably high percentage of their income and time on traveling between their homes and the places where services are located. To ease this burden, it is our duty to make this necessary traveling quicker and easier.

Over the past four years we have invested over R119m in improving roads and stormwater systems throughout the municipality. In this time we have tarred over 100km and regravelled many more. We have also upgraded the road infrastructure in the CBD. These programmes continue and will accelerate in the coming years as we continue with our Urban Renewal Programme and pave the way for the 2010 World Cup.

As part of the Urban Renewal programme we shall also start with the repaving of walkways in Landros Mare and Market streets. Our intention is to refurbish all the walkways throughout the CBD by 2009, and while doing so, also create jobs and other economic opportunities for our people.

Housing and Spatial Planning

It is the duty of every local municipality to make land available for residential development. To this end we continue to acquire land, to rezone it and to make it available for residential purposes. In this we are guided by our need to address the apartheid spatial distortions that separated the poor from services, amenities and economic opportunities. We therefore aim to develop middle and low-income residential areas in the strategic development area between Seshego and the CBD.

At the same time we shall also move out of the high-income residential property market. We believe that this market can be adequately served by the private sector that has the means and the wherewithal. From the financial year

2005 – 06, as a municipality we shall only make land available for this market – we shall not use resources of the municipality to service these areas.

Informal settlements in Tosca, Mashinini and Disteneng continue to be a serious problem, which if left unattended, has the potential to develop into serious health and security problems. Our whole Housing allocation of 1 000 units for this year will be directed towards dealing with the problem of Disteneng and by the end of this year 2005, the relocation of Tosca and Mashinini to a new settlement should be well underway. For this to happen, we have to fast-track the servicing of these new settlements.

Housing for the poor is not only about shelter. It is also about stability, about economic opportunities and about a sense of belonging. Housing for the lower income groups is therefore a fundamental part of our programme to build a better life for all. Although the function does not fully belong to us – we felt it necessary to establish a housing unit within the Municipality to ensure that our people will access this important service. Our performance in this essential function has been phenomenal. Since we established this function in 2003 we have managed to unblock five projects that had ground to a halt for the past six years. Since 2003 we have managed to build over 800 new homes in Sebayeng, Hospital View and Nobody. From tomorrow, the 1^st of June we are starting with the construction of another 425 houses in Zone 1 Ext, Seshego.

Comrade Speaker, while we strive to push back the frontiers of poverty by providing these basic services for our people, we must also seek to create space for them to access jobs and other economic opportunities. To this end we have to create an environment for local business to grow and thrive, we must also attract more business to invest in our city and to create jobs. At the same time we have to support and promote local SMMEs, which are the sheet anchor of local economic development. We must encourage development of local skills without which economic growth is impossible. These are the important pillars of our local development strategy.

Our success can be measured by the amount of direct investment that has come into the city in the past four years. New Standard Bank Centre, BB Auto, Motor City, Government buildings and many more.

To support our SMMEs, Itsoseng Entrepreneur Development Centre came into operation in June 2004 and at present more than 60 small entrepreneurs are accommodated. To support the livelihoods of the many hawkers who crowd our pavements in the city centre, we are constructing Hawker facilities in several sections of the city.

These programmes will continue as we reposition our city as the trading hub of the region.

Sports and Recreation

“All work and no play makes Jim a dull boy”, so goes an old English saying. In any healthy and integrated settlement there should be places of work and places to unwind and relax. The need for sports and recreation facilities is an integral part of reconstruction and building of a better life for all. The use of places like the Youth Park in Seshego and the Florapark Dam area bear testimony to the need for places to unwind and relax. To meet this need, we shall continue to develop more parks at the Aloe Park, Seshego Dam and Mankweng. We shall also upgrade Florapark Dam and the Youth Park in Seshego.

The Ngoako Ramathlodi Indoor Complex is nearing completion and in this year we plan to add a swimming pool to increase the range of services that this massive complex will provide.

The centerpiece of our sports infrastructure programme is the Peter Mokaba Stadium, to which the provincial government has committed R20m. Over the coming years this facility will be developed to FIFA international standards in order to accommodate the 2010 Cup games but also to host other national and international events. This will contribute towards the establishment of Polokwane as the sporting and cultural hub of Limpopo.

To achieve all these we have to work together, with our communities united in action to build prosperity, to eradicate poverty and to build a better life for all. We have to understand that all of us as Councillors, as officials, as business and as members of the communities, we must play our part.

To quote our President: “In this second decade of freedom let us work together to mobilize all our people and continue to engage in the programmes of Letsema and Vukuzenzele . . .In this way we will ensure that all our people feel that in reality, South Africa belongs to all of us”

In 2000 when we entered this Council our mission was to build and transform this Polokwane Municipality into an accountable, responsive, transparent and efficient institution that will serve the interests of all residents, irrespective of their colour or status. To this end we have extended the reach of the administration deep into Moletjie and Mankweng – in this year we will also build another office in Maja- Chuene -Molepo cluster – We are transforming this institution to serve the interests of all its residents.

We must also further build the capacity to interface with communities to instinctively respond to their needs. Our systems and controls are better than they have ever been as witnessed by the Auditor-General’s unqualified reports for the last two financial years. Challenges will remain but we are confident that we have our feet solidly on the ground to be able to deal with them.

All in all, looking back at the path we have travelled over the last four years, we have come a long way, the challenges have been many but our unity as Councillors, officials and community, our constructive debates and criticism have all enriched our actions and the quality of our work. Over the past four years we have served our people well and in this coming year – the last of our term of office – we can only improve.

To achieve all of these goals and to continue to give the high standard of service that we have maintained over the years, it is important that we also maintain and grow our revenue base.

Tariff increases are inevitable as long as inflation continues to raise the cost of the goods and services we need to render services. But it is also important for us not to add to that inflation by increasing our tariffs beyond the target range of 3% to 6%. In compliance with the National Treasury recommendations, we recommend to Council the following tariff increases:

Assessment Rates              5%
Electricity                         3%
Water                              5%
Refuse Removal                  5%
Sanitation                         5%

To lighten the burden of these increases on the poor we have also increased Indigent subsidy from R101 to R106,07 per month per indigent household

This budget is the result of the collective effort of many people. I wish to thank all those who participated in the arduous task of preparing the document itself; Members of the Multi-Party Budget Committee under chairpersonship of Koop; the Municipal Manager; the Chief Financial Officer and the Manager PMU, who worked non-stop for 36 hours to meet the deadline.

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