The Adjustment Budget: Change has arrived in Johannesburg 

21 February 2017

Since taking office on 23 August 2016, the new administration has had to grapple with a budget and business plans that it inherited from the previous administration.

This represents a major challenge, when communities expect change.

This need for change is especially felt by those who have become part of Johannesburg’s forgotten people. These are people entirely excluded from the economy. These are residents who have been waiting on the housing list since the dawn of democracy. These are residents who have been ignored, dismissed, pushed aside and forgotten by previous administrations, who put their own interests ahead of residents.

The reality is that the present legislative framework forces the new administration to operate on an inherited budget. However, this Thursday, 23 February 2017, we will table before Council the 2016/17 adjustment budget.

While this process is limited by National Treasury, which only permits minor adjustments to the budget, it represents the first chance the new administration will have to ring in some of the changes that are to come. This will take place exactly six months to the day that the new administration walked into office.

The standing rules of Council do not allow the Mayor to communicate on these items prior to Council having adopted the adjustment budget. However, I can inform the residents of our City that we will be focusing on service delivery and correcting some of the failures produced by neglect and poor priorities of the previous administration.

Without providing detail, I am able to inform the residents of our city that the adjustment budget will prioritise:

- public safety and by-law enforcement;

- the rollout of housing;

- healthcare provision;

- roads and traffic infrastructure;

- strengthening the fight against corruption; and

- service delivery and responsiveness.

On 30 March 2017, we will table our own budget for the 2017/18 financial year. In this budget, we will not be limited to adjusting the budget of the previous administration. This is the budget where our priorities and our projects will kick-start an era of change in the City of Johannesburg.

Although we are operating within the limitations of a budget approved by a government that was rejected by the residents of this City, I am confident that the adjustment budget will provide residents with the opportunity to start seeing the change that they have mandated us to achieve.

Issued by Tony Taverna-Turisan, Director of Communication, Office of the Executive Mayor, City of Joburg, 21 February 2017