Polokwane R6bn budget: “Returning funds to National Treasury is a crime against the residents,” says mayor, John Mpe

THE City of Polokwane in Limpopo on Tuesday announced a R6 billion budget with the main focus on infrastructure development and service delivery in its journey to attain the metropolitan status.

The announcement was made by executive mayor, John Mpe, in his state of the city address which was the culmination of consultation meetings with communities on the integrated development plan and budget.

During the meetings, communities raised their voices on the need for accelerated development in their areas, and especially for municipal authorities to finally deal with the water deficit bedevilling the city.

In his address, Mpe spoke of the R943 million earmarked for capital projects. A total of 78% of the amount will be allocated to water and sanitation, roads, electricity and transportation.

“This is to ensure that our infrastructure is strengthened in order to deliver basic services the city requires for the growth and improvement of the lives of our citizens.

“We have always said that returning funds to National Treasury is a crime against the residents of Polokwane. Our commitment to ensure that money allocated for service delivery is not returned back to the national fiscus has yielded results.

“We are also happy that Polokwane did not return any cent to Treasury due to poor performance during 2023/24 mid-year. In March 2024, the municipality was allocated an additional R86 million of RBIG grant due to good performance,” Mpe said.

He spoke of the unavoidable tarrifs increase which were in line with NERSA which increased electricity by 12,72% and Lepelle Northern Water which increased the commodity by 9%. However, an amount of R286 million has been set aside for indigent support.

He also spoke of how the city was on an upward trajectory through to improve financial management. He said the city maintained the unqualified audit opinion for 2022/23.

“This implies we are hands on deck to ultimately achieve a clean audit opinion,” he said.