Provincial Vuna Awards 2007, Protea Hotel, Kruger Gate, Hazyview
23 November 2007
Programme Director
Members of the Executive Council
Honourable Deputy Executive Mayor of Ehlanzeni, Councillor Selby Khumalo
Honourable Executive Mayor of Bushbuckridge, Councillor Milton Morema
Honourable Executive Mayors and Councillors from our municipalities
The Chairperson of South African Local Government Association (Salga)
Mpumalanga, Councillor Speedy Mashilo
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Traditional leaders present
Heads of departments
Our esteemed social partners representing the Development Bank of Southern
Africa (DBSA), and National Productivity Instutute (NPI)
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
It is perhaps befitting that l should join the Mayor of Ehlanzeni in
welcoming you to Kruger Gate. I join the Mayor in welcoming you without in any
way trying to influence the outcome of the winners for today.
Let me begin by acknowledging the impressive attendance that is shown here
today. We thank you for coming to celebrate with us and showing support to our
municipalities. Today is a night that belongs to our municipalities, who have
shown confidence in themselves and what they are doing to allow themselves to
be scrutinised and evaluated by external judges. We are meeting here to
recognise the good work that has been done by our municipalities. It is our
belief as a department that all our municipalities should compete for the Vuna
Awards. Last year we indicated that we were concerned with the poor
participation of municipalities in the Vuna Awards. In the 2004 Vuna Awards we
had 16 municipalities, last year we had only 11 and this year we had 15. This
is a clear indication that there is a problem, and we must find a solution to
it. As we gather here to celebrate the achievements of our municipalities, we
must ask ourselves what is it that we need to do in order to see more
municipalities participating.
Last year we indicated that as a department we are considering making it
compulsory for all municipalities to partake in the Vuna Awards because it is
through such an exercise that we can thoroughly examine municipalities. Acting
Head of Department (HOD), I think it has become more clearer now that we
definitely need to implement this proposal, because if we donât we are losing
out on getting some very important information from those municipalities that
are not taking part in the awards. Municipalities must not see these awards as
exposing their weaknesses but they must view it as an opportunity to test
themselves against the best, for how will you know where to improve if you do
not compete with the best?
Programme Director, despite the challenges faced by our municipalities, it
is worth noting that some of you still felt confident to participate in this
year awards, which criteria was more stringent. To those who participated in
this year's awards we say well done and keep up the good work. You have stood
the test of time. Your participation in these awards shows that you want to
learn from others in order to improve. It also shows us that although there
maybe challenges that you are faced with, you are still confident of what you
are doing. I commend you for sharing your experiences and achievements with us.
Such endeavours give us hope for the future.
Municipalities have been judged on five key performance areas. Our
adjudicators had to use these to evaluate the performance of our
municipalities. The key performance areas (KPAs) are:
* Institutional Transformation
* Municipal Service Delivery
* Local Economic Development
* Municipal Financial Visibility and Management
* Good Governance and Public Participation
The evaluation of these KPAs is not only for the purposes of the Vuna Awards
but it also enables us as a department to gather information on the performance
and status of our municipalities. This enables us to make a clear diagnosis of
how each municipality is performing and it assists us to be able to know what
kind of interventions we need to provide and to provide these timeously.
Now that we have assessed almost all our municipality's performance, our
next step will be to profile our findings in order to fine-tune our programmes
for capacity building interventions into the following three categories:
Category one:
All municipalities from the former homeland governments predominantly
characterised by common challenges that warrant specific capacity building
interventions that are tailor made to boost the institutional capacity
arrangements under this category
Category two:
Municipalities predominantly from the former Transvaal Provincial
Administration (TPA) (former white towns) that are smaller in size, possessing
a fair amount of resources but however facing serious challenges due to
institutional capacities to manage their current extended jurisdictions
Category three:
Large municipalities such as districts and the four cities in the province
who possess a reasonable level of capacity, whose programme may be tailor-made
to enhance their capacity for redistribution, social-economic development and
transformation
The department is working in partnership with the Development Bank of
Southern Africa (DBSA), Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG)
and all municipalities in the province to ensure that the status quos reports
of municipalities is accurately profiled, specific programmes designed and they
are ready for funding and full implementation in the beginning of the new
financial year. This is in line with the national capacity-building framework
and the Local Government Strategic Agenda (LGSA) to provide such hands on
support to all our municipalities.
Programme Director, some of our municipalities continues to struggle under
the weight of challenges that they are faced with, whilst others are indeed
distinguishing themselves as pallbearers of service delivery. We celebrate
these municipalities because their achievements so far, confirm the reliability
of the accelerated progress which our people expect from government. As we
celebrate these municipalities we must also seek to encourage those who are
still grappling with challenges not to despair, but to continue to seek methods
of overcoming these challenges. This will include a platform where
municipalities that will be awarded for excellence today shall be provided with
a platform where they will share their best practices and areas of excellence
either for the overall achievements or the KPAs in the LGSA.
This year has seen us rolling out the second year of the LGSA. The LGSA has
assisted us to be able to monitor, support and strengthen local government in
the province. It also enforces government's intention to provide hands on
support to municipalities by assigning key responsibilities in terms of key
performance areas on the following three strategic priorities:
Strategic priority one:
Mainstreaming hands-on support to Local Government to improve municipal
governance, performance and accountability
Strategic priority two:
Addressing the structure and governance arrangement of the state in order to
better strengthen, support and monitor local government
Strategic Priority three:
Refining and strengthening policy, regulatory and fiscal environment for Local
Government and giving greater attention to the enforcement measures
Programme Director, I must indicate that the implementation of the Local
Government Strategic Agenda has not been without its challenges, however, we
have scored remarkable successes. As we are all aware planning is the corner
stone of any successful development. In ensuring that the LGSA is successes we
have sought to make sure that all provincial departments sector plans reflect
the Local Government Strategic Agenda. Through the provincial planners forum we
have aligned all sector plans to the LGSA and the Integrated Development Plans
(IDPs). What has been encouraging to us is that all municipalities adopted
their IDPs by June 2007, and in addition to this some municipalities have
developed performance management systems with clear key performance indicators
linked to the IDPs. What we need to do now is to ensure that we regularly
evaluate these performance systems and monitor them to ensure adherence by
municipalities.
During the Vuna Awards last year we indicated that we need to assist
municipalities develop contracts that indicate clearly the targets on each of
the key performance areas, identify core mandates each official has to perform
and to ascertain the reasonable period of performance contract that informs the
whole package of employment. The department is assisting municipalities to
review and to fill the organograms in line with the powers and functions which
municipalities are performing. The department has also co-ordinated the
development of the database for municipal councillors and officials with
specific qualifications and experience. The aim of collating this information
is to determine the capacity profile in municipalities and to tailor makes
support programmes in line with the skills gaps. With this information we will
also be able to share information and skills amongst municipalities, so that
they can learn from each other.
We are encouraged by the positive response that has been shown by our
municipalities in appointing both municipal managers and Section 57 managers.
All municipalities have appointed municipal managers and signed performance
contracts and about 93% of the appointed Section 57 Senior managers have signed
performance contracts. The above scenario gives us hope going forward that our
system of local government can improve and meet the expectations that our
people have. Together with South African Local Government Association (Salga)
we will ensure that those who have not signed performance agreements do so
immediately.
Programme Director, the shortage of skilled personnel in the form of
engineers continues to be a matter of grave concern to the department. The lack
of skills has resulted in our municipalities being unable to spend their
Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) allocations. As part of the LGSA we have
appointed and deployed engineering firms to provide hands on support to our
municipalities. This support has specially focused on the MIG programme for the
development of project business plans and the commitment of MIG funds. The
current MIG expenditure for 2007/08 was at 25% at the end of September 2007.
This percentage rose to 34% as at the end of October 2007.
Through the hands on support provided to municipalities by the province,
municipalities were able to finalise their MIG funding for 2006/07 in time
except for Ehlanzeni that was at 97% and Thembisile at 72% as at the end of
September 2007.
The department has appointed a service provider to assist municipalities on
local economic development matters. This hand on support includes a capacity
assessment of all municipalities within the province. This assessment has
culminated in a capacity assessment status quos report on local economic
development (LED). From this assessment a report was given to the department.
The department is currently finalising a Memorandum of Understanding with GTZ
and Wits University to roll out a Wits University LED Capacity building
programme for municipal councillors and officials. The course is equivalent to
an honours degree and we hope to start rolling it out in early January 2008. I
would like to appeal to both councillors and officials to make use of the
learning opportunities that are being provided to them.
Programme Director, the debts that our municipalities find themselves
battling to recoup the monies has hampered service delivery. Indeed it has been
very disturbing to not that on top of the lists of defaulters have been
government departments. We have devised an intervention to address this problem
and I am glad to say that we are beginning to see positive results in this
regard. A task team has been formed comprising of the national Department of
Public Works, provincial departments of Local Government and Housing,
Education, Health and Public Works to look at ways to reduce the debts owed by
government departments. Data cleansing has commenced in some municipalities for
correct billing. Steve Tshwete has improved its revenue collection drastically
and will serve as a pilot.
I must also congratulate all municipalities for submitting their financial
statements on time to the Auditor-General (31 August 2007). This was happening
for the very first time and let us keeps up the good work.
Ensuring that we bring services closer to our people still remains one of
our priorities. We need to ensure that our people do not have to traverse long
distances to access basic government services. A total of 10 unused municipal
buildings that are closer to marginalised were identified, renovated and
converted into Thusong Service Centres. The province has further provided an
amount of R11,3 million to set the Thusong service centres operational. I would
like to appeal to all municipalities to make use of these service centres, and
critically they must assist us monitor them to make sure that our communities
derive the benefits that are intended.
I am convinced that with the strides and achievements that we have made we
are on course to meet our targets we have set as government and the Millennium
Development Goals. We shall definitely halve poverty by 2014.
Programme Director, I would like to thank the adjudicators for the good work
they have done. You have provided us with material that will help the
municipalities and we as a department to make sure that we assist
municipalities improve their service delivery.
At the beginning of January 2008, we will be holding elections for the
traditional councils in the province, I would like to appeal to all of you who
live in traditional authorities to be part of these elections. Let us help
democratise our traditional councils.
Ladies and gentlemen, I know you are all eager to know who this years
winners for the Vuna Awards are, and I can ensure you its not an obvious case,
as some people have come to believe. Let me not keep the house in suspense.
Before we announce this year's winner, let me take this opportunity to wish all
of you who have taken the time to come and celebrate here with us tonight best
wishes for the festive season and a prosperous New Year! Take a well deserved
rest and I look forward to seeing you next year.
I thank you
Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Mpumalanga Provincial
Government
23 November 2007
