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Anton Bredell, Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning presented the Department of Local Government’s budget for 2024/25 in the provincial parliament on Tuesday 26 March.

Minister Bredell said the budget allocation of R440.4 million for the 2024/25 financial year reflects the Department’s commitment to address the challenges facing the province and to continue providing support to local governments in order for them to provide services to their residents.

Minister Bredell said the province was affected by several natural disasters during the past year, and that these disasters were experienced by people in the local governments where they live and work.

“Looking back over the past year in our province, R3.5billion worth of infrastructure was destroyed in just 2 flooding events in June and September of 2023.  We suffered extensive damages along our coastline due to storm surges in 2023, Garden Route District calculated this to be more than R46 million. Currently we are faced with an extremely busy fire season, which has stretched our firefighting resources to the limits several times already. Our fire services have since December 2023 responded to 9500 fires, which burned 135 000 hectares of land.”

Minister Bredell also referred to the electricity outage experienced by several towns and communities in the Karoo in February 2024. “This was our first experience with what a blackout represents. In this instance fewer than 50 000 people were affected, and through the coordination of the Disaster Management Centre, all Western Cape departments stepped in to support those communities. But we need to be ready when 7 million people in this province must survive without electricity for weeks if we are to experience a countrywide blackout. The R89 million we spent on backup generators for essential services in the previous financial year came to very good use during this crisis.” 

The Minister said that the Western Cape Department of Local Government is performing very well, and this is reflected in the high standard of functionality of Western Cape municipalities. 

“Our own research at the end of 2023 indicates that 25 out of the 30 municipalities are stable and perform well when measured against council functionality, administrative stability, service delivery performance, and financial sustainability.

Other government entities and independent research organisations make similar findings:

• 27 out of 30 clean audits from the Auditor General were achieved during the latest reporting cycle.
• A total of 15 Blue Drop Certifications in the 2023 Blue Drop Report of the Department of Water and Sanitation. 
• Good Governance Africa is the latest research organisation that finds that in all municipal categories (Metro, District,

Secondary city, large town and Small-town) municipalities from the Western Cape are the best. Swartland Local Municipality is recognised as the best municipality in South Africa.”

Minister Bredell said earmarked allocations in the 2024/25 budget reflects where current challenges are being experienced, and where additional support to local governments are needed. Earmarked allocations include:

• R6 million for the Sustainable Infrastructure Development and Finance Facility (SIDAFF) Programme, which focus on infrastructural development in secondary cities within the Western Cape. SIDAFF help to ensure that the municipalities meet the international criteria required to attract funding for large catalytic projects. The budget allocation provides for dedicated Project Management support to ensure the successful rollout of this Programme. 
• The Disaster Management Centre receives R9.6 million that will go towards new technology, such as Artificial Intelligence, for anticipatory disaster risk management tools. Another R7 million will be invested in the Disaster Management Centre’s audio-visual infrastructure.
• An amount of R67 million is allocated to pilot renewable energy solutions in municipalities. R3 million goes towards the provision of specialist professional service providers to conduct investigations and assess the potential of renewable projects. R3.6 million will go towards the Municipal Electricity Master Planning Programme, and R5.7 million is allocated for additional critical skills to support the Energy Programme in the department.
• An amount of R31.6 million is allocated to strengthen existing water resilience initiatives and to explore new innovative responses to improve future water resilience.
• Capacity building initiatives within municipalities will receive R5 million in the 2024/25 budget.
• An amount of R6.5 million will go towards drought support in affected towns.
• R2 million will be invested to strengthen Fire and Rescue Services.
• R2.1 million is allocated for research, policy development and support to traditional councils to facilitate the implementation of the Traditional and Khoi-San Leadership Act.
• R5.9 million goes towards strengthening municipal support interventions together with our Provincial Treasury, in accordance with Section 139 of the Constitution.
• R11.5 million is budgeted for aerial firefighting. 

Issued by Western Cape