The Gauteng Department of Local Government and Housing will be stepping up its support to turn-around all provincial municipalities in order to respond to the basic needs of communities and to be in a position to achieve clean audits by 2014.
The department will be implementing drastic measures to assist municipalities to increase their revenue base, address billing problems and skills shortage, as well as to provide project management, accounting, finance and human resources training.
“Poor performance and lack of service delivery will not be tolerated in this province” warned MEC for Local Government and Housing Humphrey Mmemezi during the presentation of his budget speech to the Gauteng Legislature today.
He emphasised that 71 percent of Gauteng municipalities have already achieved clean audits and that the department will not rest until all municipalities improve their financial management and accountability to the public. Three municipalities received qualified reports and only one a disclaimer for the 2008/09 financial year.
"We are supporting the disclaimed and qualified municipalities to address issues raised by the Auditor-General through our Operation Clean Audit support programme," commented MEC Mmemezi.
MEC Mmemezi cautioned that the new turnaround strategies for Gauteng municipalities are threatened by non-payment of services. He called on all Gauteng citizens to prioritise their municipal bills in order to enable local government to succeed in the province.
"In our effort to be pro-active, the department will undertake a study to conduct an assessment of the billing systems in all municipalities in Gauteng, so that we can deal with the potential problems head-on, before they become a cause for concern. We recognise that customer billing is a critical component in a municipality’s customer care strategy and a significant interface in the collection of revenue," commented MEC Mmemezi.
MEC Mmemezi indicated that the local government transformation also require participation of the private sector to address some of the major weaknesses identified within Gauteng municipalities.
MEC Mmemezi also declared war on land invasions and illegal occupation of RDP houses in the province. In Lenasia a government owned land was recently illegally occupied. The Department has also approached the courts to evict families who illegally occupied government houses in Edenpark, Ekurhuleni. MEC Mmemezi warned that this behaviour is irresponsible and further indicated that government will take strong action again such people.
The MEC further condemned criminal elements responsible for instigating violence in some of the Gauteng communities during service delivery protests.
"We had violence in Diepsloot, Bekkersdal, Sebokeng, Zandspruit and other areas. The might of government must deal with these criminals head-on. Such acts of criminality, vandalism and destruction to public property will not be tolerated."
The department received a budget allocation totalling R4.5 billion to undertake all its priority programmes for the current financial year.
For more information contact:
Motsamai Motlhaolwa
Cell: 079 897 2240
Eddie Mokoena
Cell: 083 602 5652
