"Gauteng province had experienced power outages recently. This problem has had a negative impact on the economy of the province. In responding to this we launched a Gauteng sustainable Energy Strategy which was adopted by the EXCO. The strategy seeks to rally all provincial resources towards exploring and using alternative energy sources. The strategy also seeks to introduce the potential development of the green economy and introduce measures for communities, households and businesses to use energy efficiently. To this end we have committed to install 36000 solar geysers to households this financial year. This will be done working with all municipalities" said MEC Lekgoro.
"Since the development of the state of Local Government Report in Gauteng, we have adopted the Provincial Framework of the Local Government Turnaround strategy together with our municipalities. We have worked together with municipalities to develop their own municipal specific turnaround plans. These plans will be the main feature of their IDPs which in turn will find expression in their budgets for 2010/11 municipal budgets" said MEC Lekgoro.
"We have seen a very encouraging improvement in the audit outcomes of our municipalities. We remain a leading province in this regard and are happy to confirm that 71% of our municipalities achieved unqualified audit opinions. This number represents those municipalities that have unqualified audits without matters of emphasis and those with matters of emphasis. We have also seen a decline in the number of municipalities that received disclaimers; currently we only have Nokeng Tsa Taemane and Kungwini that have received disclaimers. We are paying close attention to these municipalities and giving any support possible" said MEC Lekgoro.
"The continued financial sustainability of our municipalities as going concerns is dependent on their ability to raise revenue through the services they provide to communities. It is important to make the point, that municipalities unlike their provincial counterparts, are run like business entities" said MEC Lekgoro.
"Municipalities must receive money from residents for the services they provide in order for them to continue to provide. If they do not receive, they cannot provide. If they do not provide they cannot receive. So the culture of paying for services rendered is at the root of whether a municipality will hold or collapse. Currently Gauteng Municipalities are owed over R25 billion by households, business and government" said MEC Lekgoro.
"The Department has implemented a debt management and revenue enhancement programme to support municipalities. The programme methodology was based on an analysis of baseline revenue information; strategies for debt management and revenue enhancement; and implementation plans with specific activities to effect the required changes. The programme has three broad objectives, which are Debt reduction, Billing integrity and Revenue collection improvement" said MEC Lekgoro.
"The programme will mainly deal with data cleaning, which will focus on collection from the top 300 debtors, cleaning and collection of what government departments owe to municipalities and partnering with private sector investors who have excellent experience in debt collection" said MEC Lekgoro.
"In the interest of the tried and tested methodology of checks and balances applied in democracies, we have paid considerable attention to the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) and section 79 committee systems. We believe this is a serious requirement if we should realise effective political oversight to municipal executive authorities" said Lekgoro.
"With MPAC the members of the Mayoral Committees are forced to account to elected local representatives on how and for what they use their allocated resources, just as is the case in national and provincial legislatures. Section 79 committees remove the MMCs from heading a committee that should otherwise exercise oversight over them. This allows a sound and much needed check and balance and advances the doctrine of separating those who make the laws from those who execute them" said MEC Lekgoro.
"The real challenge remains the will of local authorities to resource these committees and thus enables the local representatives to truly perform oversight on the executive. The paradox is that the executives are expected to help resource a system that will later bite them. A framework has been developed to respond to some of the challenges identified during the establishment phase of these committees and it will be discussed with municipalities for implementation" said MEC Lekgoro.
"The reincorporation of Merafong back into Gauteng has gone well. The programme of integration had many elements that had to be addressed and majority of those critical elements have been concluded between us and the North West Province. A close out report has been finalised and will be presented at the appropriate time" said MEC Lekgoro.
"The merger of Tshwane and Metsweding is continuing in the right direction. All the municipalities are involved in the process. The redetermination of boundaries is also getting on well. We will continue to support the process working closely with municipalities to ensure a seamless transition to a bigger Metropolitan Municipality" said MEC Lekgoro.
"Notwithstanding all the above efforts government is taking, communities elsewhere have begun to show impatience for waiting too long for services to arrive. After a thorough analysis we have concluded that the protests are as a result of various factors ranging from a long wait for services to be rendered, instigation by those who just stand opposed to government and internal political and community strife. We would be the first to acknowledge the conditions under which those who protest find themselves under, as very harsh. It is the responsibility of government to rid these communities of those hardships.
What remains an objective condition is that we only have so much resources to respond the problem. It is a matter that we can only solve over time and not in the short term. What we commit is that we will continue to do everything to cut the red tape, maximise the outputs and from one financial year to the other continue to tackle the problem.
For more information please contact:
Fred Mokoko
Cell: 082 447-8407
Tel: 011 355 4013
E-mail: Fred.Mokoko@gauteng.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Local Government and Housing, Gauteng Provincial Government
25 May 2010
