Low-cost housing and infrastructure development received the lion’s share of the eThekwini Municipality’s, R39.1 billion pro-poor, budget for the 2015/16 financial.

The budget tabled by Mayor James Nxumalo last week saw R6.1 billion going to the municipality’s major capital programmes for the next three financial years, which include:

• R21 billion on low cost housing and infrastructure
• R2 billion on the eThekwini Transport Authority road upgrade
• R 874.9 million to address community service backlogs
• R 1.67 billion for electricity infrastructure
• R65 billion in on the roads rehabilitation and reconstruction programme, together with new access roads
• R155 billion for the Western and Northern Aqueduct.

Nxumalo said this is a balanced budget which is aimed at changing people’s lives through radical economic transformation and accelerated service delivery.

“We are now in our third decade of freedom but our economy remains untransformed with many of our people dependent on the state for grants. Through radical economic transformation we hope to build a society where citizens are not perpetually dependent on the state but are economically independent,” said Nxumalo.

Nxumalo said the key strategic focus for the Municipality is to ensure that the City becomes financially resilient in an environment characterised by huge demands on the budget.

These demands include addressing issues related to the aging infrastructure, developing new infrastructure and closing the social gap.

“This budget contains priority issues of concern to the people of eThekwini. The constant power outages have been identified by the Municipality as a risk. A multilateral forum has been set up to come up with strategies to mitigate the impact of load shedding on the City’s operations and the local economy,” said Nxumalo.

Nxumalo said that in drafting the tariff increases, the City took cognisance of economic conditions, input costs and the affordability of services to ensure the financial sustainability of the city.