Shandre Hoffman News Today

Buffalo City Metro communities are beginning to feel the pain of the city’s spending cuts after it pulled the plug on its multimillion-rand ward-based projects. According to the ward allocation programmes report, seen by the Dispatch, 14 wards had not touched their millions by the time the freeze was implemented towards the end of 2023, while others managed to spend between R6,000 and R900,000 per ward.

For four years, libraries in Buffalo City have been operating at a R25m annual deficit due to underfunding by the department of sport, recreation, arts & culture and on August 25, BCM council approved a motion to ask DSRAC for R45m per annum to address this. The motion includes the political intervention of the BCM executive mayor and that an increase in funding must also come with an annual escalation clause.