The City of Cape Town’s new financial year started in July and ward councillors are putting into motion their plans for their allocated budget.
Each ward is allocated
R850 000 but earlier this year the City of Cape Town announced that this amount would increase to R1 million. The adjusted budget will be passed in January next year.
Last week three councillors gave a breakdown of their allocations and much of it was spent on safety and security to install CCTV cameras (“New financial year, new projects”, Southern Mail, August 7).
This week we speak to another three of the seven councillors who have wards in the Southern Mail’s distribution area – William Akim from Ward 66, Gerry Gordon from Ward 67 and Marita Petersen from Ward 68.
Ms Petersen said all the ward projects from the previous financial year had been successfully completed and this year the focus would be on youth development.
“We will upskill our youth through entrepreneurial skills and creating an environment
for economic development and R100 000 has been allocated for this,” she said.
A lot of the focus is also on the upgrade of parks in the ward to create a safe place to play for children with R200 000 was allocated for this. Safety and security is also a concern and R30 000 will be spent on the maintenance of CCTV cameras in the ward and R50 000 will be spent on capacity building for seniors.
Ms Petersen said participation was key to community building and encouraged residents to get more involved and to take pride and care of their areas.
“We are contending with high volumes of illegal dumping and vandalism and the City spent more than R100 000 on removing dumping in Ward 68 alone in the last financial year. These are funds that could have been used somewhere else, she said.
“It would also be a welcome act if residents can take better care of our recreational spaces such as our parks, sporting facilities and community halls and even our schools by reporting vandalism.”
Ward 66’s allocations will be divided between the installation and maintenance of CCTV cameras, the upgrade of play park equipment, sound equipment for the Bruce Road civic, equipment for neighbourhood watches, a health and wellness programmes for seniors, recreational and park events for youth, an ECD workshop, social development engagement and media and books for Ottery library.
Mr Akim said there would be more focus on safety and security in the ward.
“It’s a concern that we cannot solve crime as this is a challenge in our ward. We need to have more community involvement and awareness because safety and security affects us all. We should not be afraid to walk in our roads and have fear to report offenders.Break the fear to report offenders who are doing wrong. Residents must also report service delivery challenges to our offices,” he said.
Ward 67’s allocations will be split between youth outreach programmes, a Women’s Day event, two youth camps, the launch of a cadet programme, a safety and resource programme, an empowerment and compliance programme for ECD’s and traffic calming measures.
“Most of the money will be spent on safety and security and youth empowerment,” said Ms Gordon.
Illegal dumping and vandalism continues to be a problem in the various wards.
Councillors encouraged residents to report offenders and to become involved in neighbourhood watches and street committees and for residents, organisations and religious institutions to communicate with them and to attend public meetings.