The municipality is expected to table its budgets for the next financial year.  According to the South African Local Government Association (Salga), the municipality was supposed to give 48 hours’ notice of a special council meeting to councillors. However, EFF's Baba Sebolao and the DA's Hardy Viviers say, while this was done, the documents meant to accompany today's meeting were in some instances incomplete. Owing to the municipality's alleged late submission of reports, EFF's councillor, Baba Sebolao, told OFM News that the party would not be attending today's special council meeting. The DA's Hardy Viviers, on the other hand, said that the party would be attending the meeting, but would be seeing to it that the Speaker and council adheres to the law with regards to the other documents which were not received on time. Meanwhile, OFM News could not reach the representative for the Freedom Front Plus, councillor Elizabeth Snyman-van Deventer, for comment on whether her party shares the EFF and DA’s sentiments. 

It is expected that the metro will table its budget adjustments for the 2019/20 year as well as the budget for the municipality’s power utility, Centlec at the council chambers in Bloemfontein. Also expected among the agenda items will be the municipality’s Integrated development plan (IDP), which sets out the municipality’s goals and development strategies, which needs to be aligned with the municipality’s available resources. Municipal spokesperson, Qondile Khedama, said this meeting is in line with the Municipal Financial Management Act (MFMA) and regulations set out by the Treasury department for municipalities.

Khedama said that while the meeting may be postponed, due to disagreements that members of the opposition may have with the agenda, it is imperative that the budget items be tabled today. While he would not go into why these reports could not be postponed, it is clear that they must be tabled for consultation at least 90 days before the start of the financial year - which in this case is 31 March.

OFM News