During the January 2025 Special Council Meeting, the Municipal Manager provided an update under the ‘Statements and Communications’ section.

Plans for Home Affairs Office in Hermanus

The first point of discussion was the progress made with the Department of Home Affairs (DHA) regarding the request for formal office space in Hermanus. Currently, Home Affairs is serving the municipality using mobile units.

DHA has submitted a proposal to the municipality for the acquisition of office space, and we took their representatives on a tour of suitable locations. They indicated that they would not be able to appoint new staff for the dedicated office but would instead deploy personnel from the mobile unit. This unit typically handles applications and the collection of Smart IDs.

Additionally, DHA requested that the office space be provided to them at no cost and asked for two interns to assist in the office.

In principle, the Council agreed to this request and confirmed that the administration should proceed with preparing an official council item on the matter, reflecting our willingness to offer office space at no charge, as well as cover the cost of staffing.

Draft Annual Report open for public comment

The draft annual report for the 2023/24 financial year was tabled at a special Council Meeting on 29 January 2025.

The annual report is published each year to provide residents with information about the Municipality’s service delivery and financial performance during the past financial year.

Public comments can be emailed to Ms R Louw at rlouw@overstrand.gov.za. The comment period closes on 28 February 2025, and residents are encouraged to provide comment on the report.

The report will be available for review during office hours at the public liaison officers’ offices in Gansbaai, Hermanus, and Kleinmond, at all public libraries in the Overstrand, and on the municipality’s website at www.overstrand.gov.za > Documents > Annual Report.

Improving the fleet with 2nd Adjustment Budget

The 2nd Adjustments Budget was tabled in Council, reflecting proposals from the midyear review and various adjustments identified on the operating and capital budgets that require Council approval in accordance with legislation.

A positive update is that the transfer of property (oncology unit) has been completed, that will allow the municipality to enhance the fleet, adding two compactors, four sewer trucks, one digger loader, and one fire truck. This will make a significant improvement in fleet capacity and service delivery – especially sewage trucks and refuse removal. Upon approval, the process of purchasing vehicles will begin, as it takes time to complete these acquisitions.

On the operational budget amendments:

The expenditure and revenue budgets are set to increase by R98,5m and R136,4m respectively.  The adjustments relate to the R27 972 787 additional requests/savings across all directorates.

Adding to the mainstream expenditure adjustments are the Expenditure on Grants and Public Contributions (R8 932 063), adjustments for the Eskom Bulk Electricity Purchases (R15 128 102) and Bad Debt Write-off’s (R51 005 615).

The additional expenditure is driven by the additional revenue identified, and includes:

• Additional Grant Funding received and rollovers approved R26 389 768
• Additional Services Charges & Taxes Revenue R75 698 321
• Public Contributions (In-Kind & Cash) R4 3 49 432
• Additional Revenue from Rentals, Interest & Fines R19 171 000
• Gain on Disposal of PPE (Land) R10 807 400

On the capital budget amendments:

The capital expenditure budget for 2024/205 is set to have an increase of R40 398 307. This mainly relates to additional projects from grant funding received and roll-overs approved, additional requests to enhance service delivery, public contributions received and the purchase of new vehicles.

This mainly related to Additional Grants and Grant Roll-overs approved (R23 116 057), Additional Project Requests (R2 138 677), Additional Vehicle Purchases, (R13 026 000), Public Contributions/Donations (R3 657 800).

The full item can be viewed on page 382 item 4.8 on the municipal website, www.overstrand.gov.za >  Council Minutes and Agendas.