The Bitou Municipal Council has adopted a pro-poor annual budget that has a sharp focus on Bitou’s poorest communities and infrastructure development.

This is as Bitou Executive Mayor, Councillor Claude Terblanche, tabled the budget at a special council sitting on Thursday, 28 March 2024.

For the next three financial years, Bitou Municipality has budgeted over R400 million in capital expenditure.

This is because the municipality is eager to enhance its service delivery offering to communities and uplift the poorest of the poor.

For this financial year just under R300m is budgeted for electricity services, R66m for water services, and R55m for wastewater management services. This is while roads and stormwater are set to receive R35m and solid wastewater management is allocated R65m for the 2024/2025 financial year.

General services which include social services, sports and recreation, public safety, and housing have been allocated just under R187m.

All these speak directly to the service delivery departments and account for 71.3 per cent of the total annual budget.

Further, the infrastructure development which includes the overhaul of the vehicle fleet is budgeted at over R120m for the 2024/ 2025 financial year.

For sports recreation, community, and social projects a sum of R3,8 million has been allocated while the remainder of the capital budget will be used for back-up power systems, machinery, and computers. This will enable the municipality to function smoothly irrespective of power outages and/ or loadshedding.

In a true spirit of being the best together, the public is urged to participate in the budget and IDP public participation processes that will unfold in due course.