Small business owners in Nelson Mandela Bay jumped for joy as a plan to pay hundreds of SMMEs was approved by the council on Tuesday.
Council approved a R21m amendment to its capital and operating budgets in the departments of infrastructure and engineering, and roads and transport.
The R21m will be used to clean drains and ensure the city is clean over the festive season
The 600 SMME operators had demanded jobs ahead of the festive season.
Last week, a large group of operators shut down two of the city’s main administration buildings.
ANC councillor Makhi Feni, who presented the item, said it addressed the economic challenges and the backlog that SMMEs faced in the metro.
“The coalition government, as part of its process of working together, commonly identified these challenges,” Feni said.
“Some of the challenges are capacity problems and SMMEs not being taken seriously.
“Let us start with the process of ensuring everyone benefits from opportunities.”
He said allegations the item was illegal were unfounded.
“We have been complying with the law. The recommendations are clear . . . There's no supply chain process to be flouted. It’s a lie,” Feni said.
ACDP councillor Lance Grootboom said government money that was wasted through irregular and wasteful expenditure could have developed emerging and micro enterprises.
“It’s sad we’re only doing this today. We’re supposed to do more for our small businesses, do more to develop them because they will employ people,” Grootboom said.
“We are in support of this but there is service delivery that is going to be sacrificed.”
Patriotic Alliance councillor Marlon Daniels said he hoped people from the northern areas would not be marginalised when it came to dishing out work packages.
EFF councillor Zilindile Vena said no business had grown without state intervention.
“In the past few weeks we'd see our people going to City Hall every day seeking our intervention,” Vena said.
“We need to prioritise.” Mayor Mongameli Bobani said officials had told him the city had money to give to the SMMEs but that figure had changed on multiple occasions.
Bobani said the initial amount was R70m, then it changed to R18m, and eventually to R21m. “After three days, the officials came back and said there's no money,” Bobani said.
“I said, ‘don’t lie to the mayor because once you lie, you’re fired’. Then the next day they said there’s R21m and when they were meant to implement this [last week] they were sick.”
The item stated that the role of the department of economic development, tourism and agriculture was to develop emerging contractors and the department of infrastructure and engineering had requested acting municipal manager Peter Neilson to “sacrifice” the budget for the programme to be implemented.
Some of the implications of the item are delays in the construction of Jack Road in Missionvale, and that roads and transport’s Expanded Public Works Programme targets would not be met for the 2018/2019 financial year.
DA councillor Retief Odendaal said no-one could deny that SMMEs needed assistance but it was important for the process to be transparent.
“What we have is a budget amendment – nothing more, nothing less,” he said.
“Our stance is not against development but to not create expectations we can’t meet.
“When politicians make promises to communities, they need to be transparent and honest . . . An expectation was created and not delivered on the said timeline.”