Hon Speaker of Bokone Bophirima Provincial Legislature
Honourable Premier of Bokone Bophirima Province Sor Mahumapelo
Hon Members in the Executive Council
Hon Members of the Bokone Bophirima Provincial Legislature
Executive Mayors and Mayors
Speakers of Municipalities
Councillors Present Here
Magosi A Rona a a Tlotlegang
Director General of Bokone Bophirima Administration
Head of Department of Local Government and Human Settlements
Municipal Managers and Municipal officials
Executives from Business Fraternity
Managers of Public Entities
Civil Society
Government officials
Citizens of Bokone Bophirima
Distinguished guests
It is a great honour and privilege for me to stand before the House to present the Budget Vote for the Department of Local Government and Human Settlements for the 2016/17 financial year.
I am grateful to the ruling party, the ANC, for giving me the opportunity to serve the people of Bokone Bophirima with all diligence in the current decade of democracy.
As people, we have every reason to be proud of our historic gains during the twenty-two years of Democracy. Central to these achievements is our success in advancing our country away from its divided past, towards the realisation of the vision contained in the Freedom Charter, that “South Arica belongs to all who live in it, black and white”.
Honourable Speaker, our achievements as a department were not made during the year under review only. They were made during our twenty-two years of Freedom. During this period, we have laid a firm foundation for the new advances that we must and will continue to make as a collective to ensure that the people of Bokone Bophirima have access to quality life.
We remain committed to ensure transformation of Local Government to improve the living conditions of the people in our Province, working in partnership with communities.
This partnership remains critical to the provision of the basket of services which include water, electricity, waste and refuse collection, street lighting, recreational facilities, stands on which to build houses, rezoning of land business purposes and town planning for integrated developments.
We are continuing with our intervention to support municipalities, particularly around issues of capacity development, financial management, infrastructure development, revenue collection and debt management, billing, clean audits and scarce skills.
We are doing these interventions within the context of the ruling party, the African National Congress (ANC), which made a commitment during its Provincial Lekgotla, to ensure the enhancement of the existing skills in our municipalities; recruiting officials with requisite technical skills, administrative knowledge, experience and further build capacity to undertake long term planning with a view of ensuring coordination and integration of strategies for growth and development.
Currently Honourable Members, the department is compiling verification profiles of senior managers in all the municipalities and to date we have completed 11 profiles. This shows our commitment to strengthen good governance in municipalities.
Honourable Speaker, allow me to share with the House key milestones that the department has registered in the reporting period and new plans for the current financial year.
Revenue Enhancement
Honourable Speaker, our department in collaboration with Finance, Economy and Enterprise Development (FEED) took a decision to assist municipalities in the Province to develop and implement their own revenue enhancement strategies within the context of Villages, Township and Small Dorpies (VTSD).
To date, we can confirm that 12 municipalities have revenue strategies. These municipalities include Dr Kenneth Kaunda district, Tlokwe, Moretele, Madibeng, Kgetlengrivier, Lekwa Teemane, Greater Taung, Naledi, Tswaing, Ramotshere Moiloa, Mamusa and Mahikeng.
We will further review revenue plans for those municipalities which collect below the expected norm in order to improve their revenue collection and we will pay special attention to conduct data cleansing exercise.
We are also hard at work with planning the launch of Rates and Taxes Payment Campaign in May 2016 as pronounced by Honourable Premier during his State of the Province address.
Municipal public accounts committees
Honourable Speaker, since 2011, the department has ensured that all Twenty Three (23) municipalities establish functional Municipal Public Accounts Committees. We continue to build the required capacity in these committees to the extent that, much improvements is noticeable in the municipal audit outcomes due to the oversight role performed by the committees.
The Bokone Bophirima MPAC Model is recognised nationally as the best practice, whereby other provinces continue to learn from us. We acknowledge that, there are those committees that are not fully functional, and they are receiving continuous support to bring them up to speed. Furthermore, we are ready to re-establish, induct and orientate new MPAC members post 2016 elections to ensure that we retain the best practice and performance.
Clearing all debt owed to municipalities
Honorable Members, and people of Bokone Bophirima; municipalities remain hard pressed with regard to money owed to them, as a result, it becomes very difficult for them to continue with provision of services which are not paid for, include some State own entities and government departments.
In partnership with FEED, we have engaged government departments owing municipalities to reduce outstanding debt. This exercise yielded payments to the value of R210 Million which was paid to Fifteen (15) municipalities in the Province.
Municipal Property Rates Act
Honourable Speaker, we wish to confirm that, all 19 local municipalities have been supported with the review and implementation of Policies and Bylaws that give effect to the levying of property rates and taxes, and 14 local municipalities are currently successfully implementing their second generation valuation roll. However, there are 3 local municipalities namely Mahikeng, Ditsobotla and Lekwa-Teemane which are currently receiving intensified hands on support to ensure that they too comply to the requirements of the Act.
Municipal audit outcomes 2014/15
We are pleased to recognise improvements registered in the 2014/15 municipal audit outcomes because of joint support initiatives undertaken between our department and FEED. Out of 23 municipalities, only 6 were disclaimed and 1 audit report is still outstanding. Six municipalities received Unqualified audit reports, whilst 10 municipalities received Qualified audit reports. Read more [PDF]
