Bay faces losing R178m bonanza

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality could lose the R178-million windfall from the national Treasury if it is not spent by June 30.

The council yesterday rejected the city’s proposal on what the money – funds that other metros failed to spend – should be used for.

The opposition parties complained the proposal did not prioritise Bay townships.

The coalition government failed to muster the 61 votes required to pass budgetary items.

The city planned to spend the R178.8-million on tackling its water-loss crisis by purchasing new water meters, refurbishing power transformers within the energy infrastructure department and making road and stormwater improvements, among other things.

It also wanted to make alterations to the Nooitgedacht pipelines to pump more water to the city.

Opposition councillors felt strongly that the plan should have included providing serviced land for residents waiting for RDP houses.

This was sparked by a letter written by the director-general of the Department of Human Settlements, Mbulelo Tshangana, which surfaced at the meeting.

In the letter, Tshangana instructs the municipality on how the money should be spent, highlighting a few human settlements projects.

They include fast-tracking the Algoa and Motherwell NU29 housing projects, and dealing with beneficiary management, the housing needs register and finalising catalytic projects.

AIC councillor Tshonono Buyeye, who revealed the contents of the letter at the council, questioned why the municipality had disregarded it.

It emerged yesterday that the R178.8-million was given to the metro upon the request of former human settlements minister Lindiwe Sisulu.

But city manager Johann Mettler said it would be impossible to buy land and instal services before the end of next month.

“Land couldn’t be purchased by June 30 – [the projects] were all existing projects in line with USDG [Urban Settlement Development Grant] guidelines, that we could guarantee by June 30,” Mettler said.

He said the money would have to be returned if the council did not decide on how it should be spent.

“As matters stand, we cannot spend the grant at all,” Mettler said.

ANC councillor Rory Riordan suggested that the municipality request the money be rolled over as the city would not be able to spend it all in two months.

“We understand the importance of sewers and upgrading our infrastructure, but we feel that the balance is not there,” Riordan said.

A lot of the information to support the report had not been supplied early enough.

When the matter was put to the vote 59 councillors voted in support of spending the money. The ANC, UDM, UF and the AIC with 47 votes voted against spending the money.

The EFF abstained from voting. EFF councillor Zilindile Vena said: “We have serious issues with how the municipality under the leadership of [Mettler] has allocated monies without following the instruction from Tshangana.

“We are clear on what will happen – if you don’t spend your money according to this, come after June your money will be taken from your original allocation.

“Sisulu knows what the issues of Nelson Mandela are. I was shocked when I saw that no money was allocated to human settlements.

“This is a serious matter. The city is burning because of the same issues that are being raised by the national Department of Human Settlements,” Vena said.

The council is expected to reconvene on Tuesday to discuss the matter further.