By Mangaung Metro Municipality (MMM) in the Free State is now shaping up to be an investor magnet; being politically and financially stable and striving for autonomy following inventions by the provincial and later national governments.
The Executive Mayor of the sole metro in the province, Cllr Gregory Nthatisi said during his budget speech on Friday, 31 May 2024, the municipality is at the summit of political stability, which is one of the achievements the current administration managed to achieve. He said their good governance has also improved compared to when they started.
“The primary focus of this Council is to ensure the effective implementation of a financial recovery plan (RFP), for we have made so many great accomplishments in this regard. Even the National Treasury can attest that we are indeed well placed to regain absolute managerial autonomy momentum that was limited for intervention purposes.
In addition to the attainment of political and institutional stability, we have recently completed the appointment of senior management team (EMT) with the latest appointments of the Chief Financial Officer and Project Management Officer. Successful incumbents in the latter posts are expected to report on duty in the beginning of June 2024. This include the Audit Committee and Risk Committee which were appointed for the City and its electricity entity, CENTLEC,” said Nthatisi.
The Executive Mayor tabled a R9. 25 billion operating budget for the financial year 2024/25, the budget has been adjusted upward from R8.52 billion in 2023/24; this represents an increase of R1.11 billion (13.03%). The projection for the outer two years of the MTREF period is R9,70 billion and R9,82 billion respectively.
Nthatisi said the budget provides for a debt impairment increase of R534,97 million which constitutes 38,69% from the 2023/24 Adjustment Budget allocation of R1,38 billion to a new amount of R1,92 billion. The indicative for the two outer years of the MTREF period is R1,77 billion and R1,64 billion respectively. The Debt Impairment further provides for the expected consolidated average collection rate of 77%.
The 2024/25 budgeted depreciation amount is R420,69 million compared to the Adjustment Budget 2023/24 R382,45 million. This implies an increase of R38,24 million (10,00%) for the 2023/24 budget year. The indicative allocated amount for the two outer years of the MTREF period is R462,76 million and R509,04 million respectively. Significantly, this amount is set aside to renew the ageing infrastructure of the City.
