City opens doors
to stakeholders
By Tabisa Mntengwana
June 01, 2009
IN an effort to make stakeholders and the public aware of the progress of the City’s Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and budget for the 2009/2010 financial year, the municipality held a council open day at the East London City Hall.
The municipality has set aside an operating budget of R2,9-billion and a capital budget of R1-billion for the 2009/2010 financial year.
The objectives behind the event were to have intensive consultations with City stakeholders varying from businesses and NGOs, to state-owned entities and government departments.
Held on Thursday, 28 May, activities began at 9am with a welcome address by the council Speaker, Luleka Simon, who said the day was set aside to give feedback to stakeholders and to reflect on the IDP public hearings the municipality had held.
Giving her feedback presentation, the IDP portfolio head, Sindiswa Gomba, mentioned the City’s five priorities, namely roads and transport; electricity; water and sanitation; housing and land; and waste management.
Gomba also gave an overview of each priority, saying they would be looked into intensely after the adoption of the budget by the council – scheduled for Friday, 29 May. “We will consult communities to ensure they are informed about what the final budget entails,” she said.
Straight after Gomba’s presentation, Executive Mayor Zukisa Faku gave her keynote address.
Faku recognised that there were areas of concern in Buffalo City, saying that through the IDP public hearings, “the people have made their voices heard in the preparation of the 2009/2010 budget”.
Through what was discussed in the public hearings “the City will be able to make it possible to consolidate the generic needs of communities and to identify those isolated cases that nevertheless demand immediate attention”.
Throughout the day various stakeholders were able to give their views on and responses to the budget.
Faku said the budget was structured to address developmental backlogs, provide and upgrade existing infrastructure and generally ensure that the frustrations and aspirations of the people of Buffalo City were dealt with “to the best of our ability”.
There was also an exhibition, where stakeholders and municipal departments and entities were able to participate and showcase their services.
The open day came after a three-day mayoral strategic planning session in Port Alfred, the objective of which was to develop a strategic and operational service delivery plan and unearth bottlenecks affecting service delivery.
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