Mayor Amos Masondo addresses a special sitting of council on budget day

RELATED LINKS: Mayor outlines new tariffs Although services will cost more in terms of Johannesburg's 2004/2005 budget, executive mayor Amos Masondo says this is part of an economic development plan that will turn the City into a more effective service provider Read more Mayoral Budget Speech 2004/05 Mayor Amos Masondo presented the 2004/05 budget for City of Johannesburg to a full sitting of council on Wednesday Read Adobe Acrobat document

Councillor Parks Tau, mayoral committee member responsible finance, explaining the budget to media

Mayor hikes capital budget to R1,9bn June 23, 2004 By Thomas Thale THE city of Johannesburg has allocated a massive R1,97-billion to capital expenditure in the 2004-2005 financial year, almost double the R1,1-billion allocated last year. The operational budget has been increased from last year's R13-billion to R14,46-billion. Senior city officials briefing the media on the City's budget Amos Masondo, the executive mayor, presented the budget to the council on Wednesday 23 June. He said the bulk of the capital expenditure would go towards tackling infrastructure backlog in previously neglected areas, most noticeably in Soweto. "As a matter of course most of this activity will take place mainly in the inner city and Soweto," Masondo said. The mayor said the capital budget was driven by three main imperatives: rehabilitating and maintaining current and old infrastructure; new developments that will be catalysts for economic growth; and a "capital infrastructure backlog of about R8-billion accumulated in a period of five years during the city's transition and restructuring". Almost half of the budget will go towards water and electricity: City Power will get R469,5-million and Joburg Water R449,7-million, Masondo said. Seventy percent of the capital expenditure will be raised through borrowing such as the bond issue. The balance will come from allocations made by the national and provincial governments. According to the mayor, 41 percent of the budget will be used to tackle the backlog in previously neglected areas, 30 percent to maintain existing infrastructure and 29 percent to build new infrastructure. The budget for the social package, which goes towards assisting the poor, has increased from R450-million to R525-million. About R53-million has been budgeted for the provision of 50kW of free electricity per household per month, and R124-million will be used to provide six kilolitres of free water per household per month. The bulk of the R14,4-billion operating expenditure, said Masondo, will be used for bulk purchases of water and electricity, which cost the city R3,4-billion. About R3,2-billion will go towards salaries and allowances. About 57 percent of the total expenditure will be shared among the city utilities, agencies and corporatised entities. The remaining 43 percent will be used by the core administration. The regions that stand to benefit the most from the budget are Regions 6, 10 and 8. Permission to use web site material Publishers may use material from this site free of charge, as long as: Credit is given to either the "City of Johannesburg website (www.joburg.org.za)" or to "Johannesburg News Agency (www.joburg.org.za)"; If the article is used online, a link is provided to the original article on this website; The name of the article's author is acknowledged; The webmaster is informed of how and where the material is used (fill in this brief online form). Johannesburg News Agency is operated by BIG Media at 011-484-1400 Print this Page E-mail this article to a friend Help using Joburg.org.za