The budget process for the 2026/27 financial year of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro (NMBM) turned into a farce of maladministration and chaos, seriously undermining democratic processes.
The Council was scheduled to meet on 28 May to discuss the draft Integrated Development Plan (IDP) as well as the operating and capital budgets. However, the vast majority of the 120 councillors did not receive the relevant agenda or supporting documentation in time.
This constitutes a clear violation of the Council’s rules of order, which stipulate that agendas have to be disseminated at least five working days before a meeting.
The meeting started hours late and was dragged out unnecessarily as parties had to caucus on the legality of the process.
Eventually, a special hybrid meeting was announced for 29 May, with the promise that all documentation would be made available beforehand.
However, when the meeting was convened, councillors still did not have access to an agenda or any budget-related documentation.
Despite this, Mayor Babalwa Lobishe recommended that the IDP and other documents should simply be adopted or noted.
This meant councillors were expected to take decisions on billions of rand in public funds without any preparation or proper democratic oversight.
The Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) clearly stipulates that a budget must be tabled at least 90 days before the new financial year and considered at least 30 days before 1 July.
Failure to comply with these stipulations would allow the provincial government to intervene in terms of section 139 of the Constitution.
The legal deadlines and requirements are no secret, yet they are repeatedly disregarded.
This demonstrates that political control and the retention of power are regarded as more important than transparency, good governance and accountability to taxpayers.
Nelson Mandela Bay residents deserve better than this ANC-controlled city administration that is so inept it cannot even conduct its own budget processes professionally.
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Sudan: You have two cows. The southern one ran away because it contains more beef.