The Integrated Development Plan (IDP) currently under discussion by Buffalo City Metro (BCM) bears little relation to initiatives for economic growth proposed over the past year.
Compiling an IDP is a statutory requirement for all local governments, providing the basis for sound and effective decision-making by both municipality and private sector.
It appears that in many respects BCM’s objective has simply been to “tick the box” to comply with the statutory imperative, failing to present accurate, up-to-date information in its draft IDP and choosing instead to simply re-hash outdated data.
One commentator, who asked not to be identified for fear of compromising relations within the metro, said:
“The level of the IDP is too high and vague for citizens to understand how the city intends to tackle the developmental challenges on an operational issue, with human resources, budget, procurement and timeframes.”
The IDP translates into total draft operating expenditure of R5.91-billion for the new financial year which starts on July 1. Employee-related costs will total R1.55-billion, plus R58.9-million for councillors’ remuneration, reflecting a rise of 7.6%.
Funding for the IDP is based on property rates increasing by 7.5% for the next financial year and the following two years in the medium-term framework.
Refuse and sewerage tariffs will increase 7.8% and electricity by 7.64%.
Income from electricity will account for R1.89-billion, with property rates making up R1.06-billion in income.
The metro convened a two-day Growth and Development Summit (GDS) in October which highlighted all the challenges and opportunities in taking the city forward.
And while the IDP pays lip- service to the GDS by incorporating the summit’s vision for the future city as being innovative and productive, green, connected, spatially integrated and well-governed, it lacks the operational details of how this will be implemented beginning July 1.
Information on BCM’s local economic development amount to platitudes repeated often enough before – including the need for tourism and industrial infrastructure, removing regulatory constraints on business growth and addressing skills shortages.
Other information, for example on tourism, is completely outdated, referring to events that occurred in 2008, before the previous council-funded external tourism agency was closed down.
Large sections of outdated information in the 656-page report suggest that the drafters merely “copied and pasted” from previous annual iterations of metro plans.
The document presents projections of registered vehicles to 300000 cars by 2010, and highlights as a current intention to have all informal housing occupiers residing in formal housing “by 2014”.
It also refers to the reconstruction and upgrading of Fleet Street and widening of Gonubie Main Road within the next five years, projects that should be close to completion. On the operating budget, the metro intends spending R33.5-million over the new financial year on economic development, which will include R19-million for tourism events and R3-million for “soft development programme” for reburials, film industry and artist development.
Border-Kei Chamber of Business executive director Les Holbrook said the chamber had been extensively involved in both the IDP and GDS “at a very high and strategic level”.
In a wide-ranging submission, the chamber encouraged the metro to promote income generation by industry, tourism and commerce.
The chamber targeted six development priorities:
- Upgrading infrastructure and cleaning the city;
- Organisational transformation and development;
- Procurement;
- Proper planning;
- Environmental sustainability and
- Institutional collaboration. — rayh@dispatch.co.za
BCM’s ‘copy-and-paste’ IDP plan
Compiling an IDP is a statutory requirement for all local governments, providing the basis for sound and effective decision-making by both municipality and private sector.
It appears that in many respects BCM’s objective has simply been to “tick the box” to comply with the statutory imperative, failing to present accurate, up-to-date information in its draft IDP and choosing instead to simply re-hash outdated data.
One commentator, who asked not to be identified for fear of compromising relations within the metro, said:
“The level of the IDP is too high and vague for citizens to understand how the city intends to tackle the developmental challenges on an operational issue, with human resources, budget, procurement and timeframes.”
The IDP translates into total draft operating expenditure of R5.91-billion for the new financial year which starts on July 1. Employee-related costs will total R1.55-billion, plus R58.9-million for councillors’ remuneration, reflecting a rise of 7.6%.
Funding for the IDP is based on property rates increasing by 7.5% for the next financial year and the following two years in the medium-term framework.
Refuse and sewerage tariffs will increase 7.8% and electricity by 7.64%.
Income from electricity will account for R1.89-billion, with property rates making up R1.06-billion in income.
The metro convened a two-day Growth and Development Summit (GDS) in October which highlighted all the challenges and opportunities in taking the city forward.
And while the IDP pays lip- service to the GDS by incorporating the summit’s vision for the future city as being innovative and productive, green, connected, spatially integrated and well-governed, it lacks the operational details of how this will be implemented beginning July 1.
Information on BCM’s local economic development amount to platitudes repeated often enough before – including the need for tourism and industrial infrastructure, removing regulatory constraints on business growth and addressing skills shortages.
Other information, for example on tourism, is completely outdated, referring to events that occurred in 2008, before the previous council-funded external tourism agency was closed down.
Large sections of outdated information in the 656-page report suggest that the drafters merely “copied and pasted” from previous annual iterations of metro plans.
The document presents projections of registered vehicles to 300000 cars by 2010, and highlights as a current intention to have all informal housing occupiers residing in formal housing “by 2014”.
It also refers to the reconstruction and upgrading of Fleet Street and widening of Gonubie Main Road within the next five years, projects that should be close to completion. On the operating budget, the metro intends spending R33.5-million over the new financial year on economic development, which will include R19-million for tourism events and R3-million for “soft development programme” for reburials, film industry and artist development.
Border-Kei Chamber of Business executive director Les Holbrook said the chamber had been extensively involved in both the IDP and GDS “at a very high and strategic level”.
In a wide-ranging submission, the chamber encouraged the metro to promote income generation by industry, tourism and commerce.
The chamber targeted six development priorities:
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