Limpopo Provincial Government’s Executive Council (EXCO) held a meeting on the 30 October 2019 in Polokwane. The meeting was chaired by Premier Chupu Stanley Mathabatha.
1. Armed Forces Day
EXCO received and supported with delight a presentation on Armed Forces Day planned by the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) in the province, for 21 February 2020. Armed Forces Day is commemorated to honour men and women in the hub of the profession of arms who lost their valuable lives in line of duty as well as current serving members.
Young people and learners in particular will be exposed to a variety of vocations they can follow in the SANDF and at the same time be entertained by military parade and other interesting shows by armed forces.
EXCO resolved that the Social Cluster should work closely with the SANDF to make the Armed Forces Day a resounding success.
2. Managing Migration and Border Management
The Provincial Executive Council was briefed on the status of the border environment in Limpopo with special reference to the Beit Bridge port by the Department of Home Affairs. The busiest land port of entry in South Africa, Beit Bridge accounts for a significant size of commercial cargo, traffic and travelers. It services an average of 30 000 trucks, 40 000 light motor vehicles, 10 000 buses and 500 000 travelers per month. Amongst challenges highlighted were:
- Port health
- Traffic congestion
- Port trading
- Infrastructure deficiencies
The Provincial Executive Council resolved that a follow-up with a team of ministers (Home Affairs, Defence & Public Works) should be expedited to discuss the border management challenges at Beit Bridge.
3. Central Audit Committee
Subsequent to presentation of a report by the Central Audit Committee, EXCO directed the Provincial Treasury, Departments of Education and Health to establish Task Teams to investigate issues relating to irregular expenditure and report to the MECs on a regular basis. The rationale behind this, is to ensure the limited government resources available are utilized accordingly and there is accountability thereof.
Provincial Treasury was also directed to develop a plan that would periodically monitor the budget of the Department of Health as there are already indications of overspending. In the same vein, the Director General should convene a meeting with the Head of Department for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs to unlock blockages hindering the utilization of the housing conditional grant.
4. Pilot Project on mapping of planned/future Infrastructure Projects
The Executive Council received a report from Provincial Treasury detailing on how the use of GIS could afford the province an opportunity to develop evidence based plans that would benefit the people of the province. Departments will also be capacitated with this system (GIS) where there is lack thereof.
5. Expenditure report
There is a significant improvement on departments paying service providers within the prescribed 30 day period with September 2019 figures registering 94% payment of invoices.
Members of the Executive directed Office of the Premier, Provincial Treasury, Public Works and COGHSTA to meet and deliberate on matters pertaining to glitches hampering infrastructure development in the province.
6. Limpopo – Provincial Audit Outcomes
Office of the Auditor General (AG) presented audit outcomes to the Executive Council. The highlight thereof is that the Provincial Treasury scooped a clean audit award three years in a row. Congratulations are in order for the Community Safety department which also did the province proud by obtain a clean audit outcome as well.
The province recorded a substantial improvement in that there is no department that had adverse or disclaimer audit outcomes. A total of Nine (09) departments received unqualified audit outcome whereas only one department (i.e. Social Development) regressed from unqualified to qualified audit outcome. The AG however highlighted the following as factors to consider in order to move towards clean audit:
- Quality of financial information
- Procurement processes
- Preventative controls
- Consequence management
- Monitoring systems
7. World AIDS Day commemoration
EXCO approved the nature and character of the World AIDS Day event to be held on the 01 December 2019 at Mduduni Village in Ha-Kutama in Makhado Municipality, Vhembe District. The commemoration will be preceded by build-up activities in the form of Cheka Impilo activities in Churches led by the Local Mayors, Executive Mayors and EXCO Members during the Sundays of November 2019.
8. Presidential launch – Waterberg District Development Model update
The Executive Council confirmed date and venue for the hosting of the District Development Model launch as 26 November 2019 at Lephalale Municipality. The President of the country, His Excellency Matamela Cyril Ramaphosa will grace the occasion.
Preparations for the launch are underway and the four (04) Technical Working Groups (Governance & Leadership, Local Economic Development, Infrastructure and Social Development, Safety & Security) are hard at work to ensure that the Limpopo version is successful. The cabinet approved model seeks to ascertain collective, collaborative, shared and integrated planning of the three spheres of government, private sector and Civil Society in the development agenda detailed in One Plan-District Wide IDP of each District. The envisioned One Plan – District Wide IDP is a plan that will delineate the desired socio-economic development future of each District and clearly illustrate how this future can become a reality.
The subsequent One Plan – District Wide IDP will be pitched at 5 to 25-Year horizon and will encapsulate aspects such as (a) Demographic and Socio Economic Profile (b) Governance, Leadership and Financial Management (c) Integrated Service Provisioning (d) Infrastructure Delivery (e) Spatial Restructuring and Economic Positioning. It will also include Monitoring, Evaluation and reporting mechanisms and a Communication Strategy to support its marketing, media profiling and stakeholder engagements.
Media Enquiries:
Ms. Mamogo Ntuli - Acting Provincial Government Spokesperson
Cell: 079 490 6322
