"The following critical capital projects have either been scrapped or stripped of all remaining funding:

• emergency upgrade of Promosa and Baipei pump stations;
• emergency upgrade of Top City and Extension 9 sewer lines;
• upgrading of the Mohadin Poortjie dam sewer line;
• construction of the Poortjie Dam bridge at Promosa;
• upgrading of the Promosa Extension 7 pump station in Areaganeng Street;
• upgrading of the Potchefstroom waste water works;
• technical work on the upgrading of the Poortjie Dam and Ikageng West electricity substations;
• upgrade of the Ikageng central electricity substation.

"The procurement of generators to operate water and sewer plants saw a 50% budget cut of R5 million," says De Bruin.

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"The DA is appalled that the African National Congress, Economic Freedom Fighters, and Patriotic Alliance in the JB Marks Council have once again pushed through an incomplete and non-compliant adjustment budget without considering the financial implications for our towns' residents, and the devastating impact on an already poor service delivery track record."

If the municipality fails to complete these projects, it will lose in total about R62,2 million in grant funding, as Treasury intends to withhold R28,9 million from the municipal infrastructure grant and R27,6 million from the integrated national electrification programme while funding from the water services infrastructure grant was reduced by R5,7 million.

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"The DA fought tooth and nail for Council to reconsider the adjustment budget to put the interests of suffering communities first, but our efforts were met with political rhetoric," says De Bruin.

"It is of particular concern that major revenue streams, namely income from electricity and water sales, are becoming increasingly restrained while not even 1% of the projected R94 million in income from predominantly traffic fines will be received."

OFM News