Swakop tables ‘restrained’ N$842 million budget

The Swakopmund municipal council has implemented cost saving initiatives and restraints to ensure its proposed N$842 million budget for the next financial year does not impose economic hardship on the town’s residents, while still enabling continued municipal services.The operating budget is 62% (N$520 million) of the total budget while the rest (N$322 million) will go to capital projects. An average tariff increase of 3% for all service-related tariffs was proposed – which will exclude senior citizens and basic water tariffs.Extensive expenditure cuts to minimize the increase in rates and tariffs, restraints by public workers to demand salary increases, reduced dependency on contracted services, and greater control on expenses incurred by councillors and officials, are among these measures.Swakopmund council management committee chairman, Wilfried Groenewald, during his 2022-2023 budget speech last Thursday said that the Covid-19 pandemic has placed “huge strain” on the Swakopmund municipality’s capacity to deliver financially sustainable services.A path to recovery has thus been charted to ensure that the appropriate levels of services are delivered efficiently, he said, adding that the investments made through the new budget will not only help to ensure services are delivered, but will also support the recovery of the town’s economy.“Knowing the significant fallout from this crisis and how it has impacted on the income levels of businesses and residents, we have place significant emphasis on ensuring that this budget does not impose further economic hardship,” said Groenewald.Extensive expenditure cuts in the new budget has ensured that rates and tariff increase have been kept to an “absolute minimum”.“We understand that this has been a hard year for staff and councillors who have continued to deliver services and support communities under trying circumstances, but we all need to make sacrifices to achieve long term sustainability,” he said. “It is unconscionable that those in the public sector, by virtue of being subject to collective agreements should impose further strain on the residents we serve.”He said that the council also continued to reduce dependency on consultants, and place greater control on expenses incurred by councillors and officials.Furthermore, Groenewald explained that the sound budget implementation from previous years, which allowed the municipality to historically support the budget with surpluses from previous years, is not a sustainable option available this time around as these surpluses are not available to further support its financial year as a sustainable funding source.Despite these constraints, priority was given to the capital projects, repairs and maintenance provision and expenses required to ensure ongoing delivery of basic services.“We need to ensure that we can deliver these services as cost effectively as possible and will continue to pursue actions which mitigate service delivery cost increases,” he said. “Our budget has been a careful balancing act between meeting the service delivery needs of all businesses and residents in these trying times and stemming further economic decline in the constrained context.”The coming year, priority areas are land planning and servicing, especially for ultra-low income category; low-cost housing provision; upgrading of bulk infrastructure and major investments in the industrial sector, urban agriculture and the tertiary sector.Of the notable projects, the maintenance and upgrading of the bulk wastewater infrastructure will take the lion’s share (nearly N$120 million) of the capital budget. Another N$41,5 million will go towards the maintenance and upgrade of bulk water infrastructure. Nearly N$ 24 million will go towards maintenance and upgrade of roads.The construction of an SME park will cost N$21 million, while the replacement of new fire rescue vehicles and equipment will cost about N$19 million.The construction of social houses for ultra-low income groups and others takes the sixth largest piece of the capital ‘pie’ as about N$18 million.The rest of the capital budget goes to a variety of smaller projects.Groenewald concluded that the council will monitor the current financial year’s transactions to ensure that the municipality is sustaining the desired levels of services, while moving forward with current development to ensure growth during the next financial year.

Swakop tables ‘restrained’ N$842 million budget

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Republikein 2025-09-17

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Swakop tables ‘restrained’ N$842 million budget

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