Buffalo City Metro mayor Princess Faku will get a new official car on Friday after she asked management to review her transport arrangements in an attempt to reduce costs, but the new vehicle still costs more than half-a-million rand.
Buffalo City Metro’s staff owe the city R12.7m in rates arrears, while the city’s councillors are in arrears to the tune of R112,200. Now the city, facing dwindling cash reserves due to poor revenue collection, has announced measures to clamp down on people who do not pay their rates.
Buffalo City Metro is facing yet another cash crunch this time thanks to a massive overtime bill. In the understatement of the century, it has admitted that the past three-month’s cumulative overtime bill of R35m, has “affected its cash flow”.
Buffalo City Metro’s staff overtime bill has ballooned to R35.4m in just three months, prompting the cash-strapped municipality to clamp down on overtime payments as creditors close the taps. On Thursday, some traffic officers complained that their municipal petrol cards had been declined at filling stations.
Buffalo City Metro, desperate to solve its cash flow problems, wants either the provincial or national government to reimburse it for millions it spent upgrading Settlers Way from the Fleet Street police station to King Phalo Airport.But both the provincial and national governments said the R72 stretch in question did not belong to them and they had no agreements with the city before the upgrade.