Programme Director,
Executive Mayor,
Mayors and speakers from all municipalities,
Esteemed councilors,
Traditional leaders,
Invited guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good day,
Let me begin first by thanking the Vhembe District Municipality for providing me with this opportunity today. I am indeed honoured to be among the hardworking officials and office bearers of this District Municipality on this important day of the inauguration of the Executive Mayor of this District. I take this opportunity to congratulate you on your appointment. You are now on board with the rest of us to help drive forward and actualise our service delivery objectives in the Vhembe District Municipality.
As a public representative, we are certain that you will hit the ground running in ensuring that our people who remain destitute and desperate for services, have access to basic services such as water, electricity, health care and decent shelter. These are people who look up to us as Government to complement their livelihood. In their majority, they are unemployed and depend on Government grants and other social programmes for survival. To them, we are the only solution and the much needed hope for their day to day survival. That is why we want all our public representatives to speak the plight of our people and be concerned about issues of service delivery.
Our shared vision of 2014/15, which is a clean, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient local government system, should not be compromised. This vision urges us to commit to Government’s priorities of accelerating service delivery in order to meet national targets. As you all know by now that the key priorities include Education, Health, Rural Development, the fight against crime and creating decent work.
Ladies and gentlemen, for this vision to be realised, firstly we need to take care of those cardinal factors that are indispensable, whether we like it or not, for driving municipal performance to a high level of service delivery.
Service delivery overview
In our recent Budget vote, we spoke about the following infrastructure development projects in this district: Re - laying of pipes from Nandoni to Valdezia, which is currently underway, assessment of waste water treatment works which is at 4.7 million rand and the implementation of 8 regional bulk infrastructure projects to the value of R481.223 million. In as much as we have these infrastructure development projects, let us make it a point that as municipalities we do implement the MIG expenditure. For example, we have sadly noted that Makhado and Mutale local municipalities are behind in their implementation of the MIG expenditure. (Below 65% as a threshold).
The provision of basic services has improved substantial in the entire Vhembe District area of jurisdiction. As of June 2012 the household’s access to water services has improved to 78%, while sanitation has improved to 52%. The provision of electricity to households has a reached 82%.
The District Municipality has successful implemented a number of key water services project over the past five years which includes amongst others
i. Nzhelele Regional Water Scheme with a total budgeted of R1 million
ii. Guyini / Khunguuni water project a total budget of R1 million
iii. Khubvi Water Supply with a total budget of R10,3 million
iv. Mutale Route S with a total of R10 million
v. Tshishivhe Water Supply with a total budget of R13 million
With regard to sanitation projects over 22 000 VIP have been built across the district area, amongst during the 2010/11 financial year, 936 households in Mutale Local Municipality were beneficiated from the budget of R35 million.
Some of the sanitation projects worth highlighting are:
i. Musina upgrading of the Oxidation Ponds with a budget of R10 million
ii. Upgrading of the Makhado Sewage Treatment Plant with a budget of R11 million
iii. Musina installation of sewer Ext 1, 6& 7, with a budget of R11 million
iv. Mhinga sewage ponds Phase 2 extension with a budget of R6 million
Nandoni Dam reticulation challenges
The challenge experienced with regard to construction of the reticulation pipeline from Nandoni Dam to the villages was an unfortunate incident that should never be allowed to repeat itself in any project in the province. In this regard the Department of Water Affairs has commenced with the construction of the parallel pipeline whilst the litigation process over the quality of the original pipeline continues.
We need to announce that the Provincial Water Master Plan will be developed in this financial year. This will be executed by the Department of Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs working hand in hand with DWARF. The aim is to address the acute shortages of water in our rural areas.
The functionality of these projects will play a significant role in the provision of quality services to our people. It is therefore imperative that we speed up the completion of the projects in question.
Roads construction
The District has successfully upgraded the road network within its area of jurisdiction over the past five years. Access to a number of villages has been improved across the district area.
Economic Development
As part of the Provincial Economic Development Strategy, the Musina/Makhado Corridor is a critical economic zone. The Department, working together with the municipalities will fast track the implementation of key infrastructure projects in both Musina and Makhado. As an example, we have the finalisation of the Makhado/Musina Infrastructure Master Plan worth R20 million which is co–funded by DBSA.
Makhado Musina Development Corridor
The Department facilitated a Mandate Agreement between Musina and Makhado municipalities with DBSA. The DBSA will fund implementation of strategic development project within the areas. The department has started with the process of developing the Makhado Infrastructure Master Plan which will provide a comprehensive understanding of the infrastructure needs for these corridor. The Draft Spatial Development Framework and Town Master Plan for Musina have been completed.
The Vhembe District Municipality in its endeavor to promote local economic development opened the Tshakuma Vhembe Fresh Produce Market build with a budget of R9,5 million. This fresh produce market provides a platform for local farmers in particular emerging farmers to market the product as far as Gauteng. This market will enable about 800 local farmers to sell their products to the Johannesburg Fresh Produce Market.
Operation Clean Audit
The Year 2014 has been set as national deadline for ensuring that all government institutions received clean audit. As a government, we are still deeply committed to Operation Clean Audit 2014 which is just around the corner; in fact it is just two financial years away. This implies that by now all municipalities should have improved greatly on their audit outcomes. However, this has unfortunately not been the case. We have realised that the majority of our municipalities in the province are struggling to register an improvement in their audit outcomes. The worrying question is, are we on course to realise Clean Audit 2014
It must be noted with concern that the entire District has been performing very poorly with regard to the Auditor General audit opinion over the past five years. The most critical municipality is Makhado which has received disclaimer audit opinion over the past 8 years. There is a need to put a concerted effort to assist the municipality to turnaround this challenge. Musina used to be the best performing municipality in the entire province however it recently regressed to a qualified audit opinion. Mutale has been inconsistent as in 2009/10 the municipality received unqualified audit opinion which regressed to a qualified audit opinion in 2010/11 financial year. There is a need to ensure that the municipality returns to unqualified and subsequently to a clean audit report.
The most common challenges regarding the financial accountability has to do with the following
- Accounting of asset- in particular water infrastructure asset for the district municipality
- Keeping credible asset registers
- Accounting for revenue generated- in particular revenue generated through trading services like water
The department has commissioned two accounting firms to assist all the municipalities to achieve clean audit by 2014. The scope of work of these resident accountants includes:
- To provide hands on support on technical financial management with regard to the closure of the financial year with specific emphasis that the municipality's financial records for that financial year are in order and ensure skills transfer
- To assist with preparation of the financial statements
- To ensure that working papers are available before preparing the financial statements as evidence for auditing purposes.
- To assess the state of financial management in the municipality and provide recommendation on areas of improvement;
The allocation to the service providers are as follows:
- CorpMD service provider deployed at Greater Giyani, Makhuduthamaga, Musina and Sekhukhune.
- Ngubane & Co/Kgorong service provider deployed at Ba-Phalaborwa, Bela-Bela, Modimolle.
Governance
Municipal Public Accounts Committee
The establishment of Municipal Public Accounts Committee has been completed across the province and training and capacity development for the elected members has commenced. All municipalities are expected to create an enabling environment for this committee to function properly and meet the set deliverables.
In addition to the MPAC, all municipal councils are expected to ensure that there is sufficient oversight and provide strategic leadership to their municipalities. Municipalities should ensure that they comply with all statutory reporting requirements including the submission of report to Municipal Public Accounts Committees.
Musina challenges:
The department is addressing the institutional instability and challenges experienced by Musina local municipality. In this regard the District Municipality deployed an official to act as a Municipal Manager; the support provided is appreciated in the spirit of cooperative governance.
Filling of top management position
The department working together with the Provincial Treasury monitors the filling of top management position in order to ensure compliance with the Municipal Systems Act Amendment Act 2011. The bottom line is that these critical management positions must be filled with officials with the necessary experience, competence and relevant qualification. In addition the National Treasury issued Competence Regulation which provides an unambiguous framework for competence required for the filling of Section 57 managers in municipalities.
Further than that, we should stop recycling such managers who have bad performance record. We should also ensure that Budget and Treasury officials possess requisite skills in the following units: Supply Chain Management, Budget and Expenditure, Credit and Debt Controls, Risk Management and Internal Audit.
Chief Financial Officers are the heartbeat of any Government institutions if we are serious about achieving our 2014 Clean Audit Vision. In this light, we should speed up the appointment of CFO in both Makhado and Musina municipalities.
The CFO position in Musina municipality has been vacant for over 20 months and in Makhado for six months. Municipal Council needs to fast track the process of filling all top management positions because delays in this case always end up being costly on service delivery. And during the recruitment process municipal leadership must ensure that these positions are filled by officials who have appropriate skills, expertise, competence and qualifications.
Strengthening of Political oversight
Equally important is the strengthening of the Provincial Political Oversight. This we should do by establishing a Provincial IGR Forum ( MunMECs) which is constituted of MEC for CoGHSTA and Provincial Treasury. The Provincial IGR Forum will be attended by District Mayors and Local Mayors on a quarterly basis. This forum will monitor implementation of municipal audit remedial action plans; revenue and debt management issues as well as infrastructure grant expenditure. It will also come in handy in complementing AG’s work on governance and financial management issues.
The capacity of councilors is very important in the performance of the municipality and the delivery of quality services for our people. On this score, we have planned to roll out capacity building training programmes for councilors. Chief among the programmes will be Principles of Strategic Management, Public Participation and Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and Principles of Financial Management, including Financial Management reporting and Supply Chain Management.
Councillors are called on to stop interfering with the Supply Chain Management processes or the appointment of staff in the organization. Indeed many of the challenges and difficulties we face will surely require maximum unity and cooperation between and among us a representatives. You have a responsibility towards each and as mayors and councilors you must support the Executive Mayor. You must collectively ensure that administration under the leadership of municipal managers function better and properly.
You and the collective can only be different from the rest if you introduce forward and integrated planning which will lead to increased and efficient expenditure of your budget.
In conclusion, tommorow marks the 94th birthday of one of the greatest icons ever, Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. It behooves of us as responsible and noble citizens to pause and reflect on the great deeds that this icon has done for all of us. We all know the key challenges facing our communities and we call on those who are privileged to confront the desperate plight of society’s have nots. Let the Nelson Mandela month serve as a common platform to serve humanity and to deepen and entrench the spiritual philosophy of Ubuntu and its inherent values of equality, freedom and justice for all. It is my view that with better coordination and implementation, together we will be able to build better communities. We wish you well in your responsibilities.
I thank you.
