https://www.polity.org.za
Deepening Democracy through Access to Information
Home / News / All News RSS ← Back
Close

Email this article

separate emails by commas, maximum limit of 4 addresses

Sponsored by

Close

Embed Video

Johannesburg rates to go up as city spends on capital projects and skills for youth

Johannesburg rates to go up as city spends on capital projects and skills for youth
Photo by Duane Daws

26th May 2015

By: RDM News Wire

SAVE THIS ARTICLE      EMAIL THIS ARTICLE

Font size: -+

The country's biggest local government budget of R52.6-billion was tabled on Tuesday by the City of Johannesburg’s member of the Mayoral Committee for Finance‚ Geoffrey Makhubo‚ with a focus on capital expenditure‚ housing and youth employment.

Makhubo presented his budget for the year 2015/16 at the Sandton Convention Centre where the council meeting is sitting.

Advertisement

The multibillion-rand budget is the first council in the country to exceed the R50-billion mark in one financial year in the local government space.

This budget includes R10-billion for capital expenditure in infrastructure upgrade and investment.

Advertisement

Makhubo set aside about R29-billion for Pikitup‚ City Parks‚ Joburg Water and housing development.

In housing‚ most of the budget will go to eradication of hostels in the city and the metro's programmes of growing integrated housing developments.

Furthermore‚ about 200 000 youths will be trained in various skills and be placed in formal employment as well as government's Expanded Public Works programme.

Makhubo said despite challenging economic times for ratepayers‚ the city was in good financial health.

“The city's finances are healthy. A city that three years ago had a capex budget of R3.9-billion‚ in this current financial year we are sitting with a budget of capex funded 40% by our own resources and the rest is a mixture of grants and loans. It means we are generating cash surpluses and we use those surpluses to invest in capital infrastructure‚” Makhubo said.

But Makhubo had some bad news for the citizens of Joburg. The cost of living the country's economic hub will rise substantially as of July 1.

- Property rates will go up by 6%;
- Refuse collection will surge by 8%;
- Electricity will swell by 12.19%; and
- Water and sewerage will rise by 14%.

EMAIL THIS ARTICLE      SAVE THIS ARTICLE

To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here

Comment Guidelines

About

Polity.org.za is a product of Creamer Media.
www.creamermedia.co.za

Other Creamer Media Products include:
Engineering News
Mining Weekly
Research Channel Africa

Read more

Subscriptions

We offer a variety of subscriptions to our Magazine, Website, PDF Reports and our photo library.

Subscriptions are available via the Creamer Media Store.

View store

Advertise

Advertising on Polity.org.za is an effective way to build and consolidate a company's profile among clients and prospective clients. Email advertising@creamermedia.co.za

View options
Free daily email newsletter Register Now