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KNYSNA NEWS - Despite receiving thousands of signatures and comments opposing the proposed 2023/24 municipal budget, Knysna Council passed the new budget during a council meeting held yesterday, Wednesday 31 May.
The Medium Term Revenue and Expenditure Framework (MTREF) budget is carried out each financial year by local municipalities in accordance with the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).
Knysna Municipality's draft 2023/24 MTREF budget has, however, been met with widespread criticism from members of the public, political parties, ratepayers associations, public organisations, and the like. The list seems endless.
The primary bone of contention between the many objections to and criticisms of the budget, is that the proposed increases were exorbitant and not financially feasible for residents.
Of particular concern was the proposed rates increase of 33%, which was halved to 17% last week, but even this is seen as still too high.
In the document submitted to council for this week's meeting, which included the comments of objection from the public, there were no less than 919 comments received from the public regarding the MTREF budget.
This was aside from various petitions received objecting against the budget, including one started by Ward 9 Councillor Sharon Sabbagh that obtained more than 4 500 signatures as well as another petition signed by roughly 200 residents of Smutsville requesting ammendments to the budget.
During his reading of the final budget report, Knysna Mayor Ndoda Aubrey Tsengwa indicated that more than 2 000 comments were received from 13 public participation meeting, "the bulk of which were objections".
The meeting commenced at 11:00 yesterday, and it was immediately evident that it would not be a short and sweet meeting, with regular interruptions to the council meeting constantly halting anything resembling progress.
These interruptions came courtesy of disruptions from the public gallery, protestors outside the municipality, and from councillors themselves as they bickered back and forth amongst one another turning council into something closely resembling a circus.
While residents, either attending in-person or following via the livestream on YouTube, waited with baited breath for the outcome of the debate, it took council more than seven hours to reach the point on the agenda.
It was only brought to the floor at about 18:45, with Tsengwa tabling the report. After addressing council for a few minutes, it took a further hour and 15 minutes before councillors gave their verdict.
The DA and KIM opposed the budget, while the PA, PBI, EFF and ANC voted in favour. This led to the budget being passed with a vote of 11 to 10 and will kick in on 1 July this year.
For a breakdown of amendments that were made to the budget, you can read the story on Page 2 of this week's edition of the Knysna-Plett Herald as well as online.
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