Mayor lays out spending plans

Buffalo City mayor Alfred Mtsi yesterday promised to spend on infrastructure, build houses and fight fraud and corruption.

Delivering his state of the metro address at the Abbotsford Christian Centre yesterday, Mtsi said the city had taken a decision to invest in the maintenance of its ageing infrastructure to improve service delivery.

These include:

lR300-million over two years to upgrade 60km of Mdantsane roads;

lR977-million for Nahoon Dam East Coast Water supply, the Kei Road water treatment works, an additional storage reservoir for Amahleke villages;

lR250-million for construction of new roads, rehabilitation and reconstruction of existing ones;

lR600-million to upgrade Quenera, East Bank, Reeston and Mdantsane waste water treatment works; and

lR23-million to rehabilitate metro bridges.

“Funding has therefore been earmarked for areas that have an economic benefit for the metro or areas that have the oldest infrastructure assets in most need of refurbishment or replacement,” said Mtsi.

The metro has plans to spend R10-million for a new fleet of graders.

“The works cannot happen without a significant investment in plant machinery to enable our personnel to fulfil their operational functions,” said Mtsi.

The mayor revealed  plans to replace at least 5000 Duncan Village shacks with proper houses, a project he called Project M3.

Mtsi said it had been a challenge to address Duncan Village’s housing backlog for some time, despite the township playing a significant role in the history of the metro. An implementing agent had been appointed. It is unclear how much the project is worth, but Mtsi said “to this end a housing provision of no less than 3000 and no more than 5000 units in this area will be delivered over a three-year period,” he added.