Honourable Speaker;
The newly elected mayor;
Traditional Leadership present;
Church leadership;
All newly elected councillors and returning councillors;
The city manager;
All political party leadership and representatives;
Representatives of the tripartite alliance;
Members of the public;
Members of the media;
All protocol observed;
I am proud to stand before this newly elected council of eThekwini. My very presence here amongst you today brings me fond memories of the good, old times when I, too, was once a councillor, working in this very same building.
So I could very easily say “it’s good to be home again”!
I wish at the outset to congratulate the outgoing Mayor Obed Mlaba. I served with you Ximba in the early days of this council. You and I will recall the challenges that we had to deal with in the times when our democracy as a country was still at its infancy, with the remnants of the apartheid system showing up at every step of the way.
It is through your commitment and devotion that eThekwini is what it is today. Your 16 years of service will forever remain not only in our minds, but also before our eyes through all the achievements that the city of eThekwini is known for. We name among those gains the fact that a large section of rural and township communities now have water, electricity and roads where these previously were inexistent. We name among the milestones, the landmarks such as the International Convention Centre (ICC), the UShaka Marine World, the Moses Mabhida Stadium, the revitalisation of the beachfront and the Waterfront, the new King Shaka International, among many other key developments in the city.
The new mayor and council that have been elected today walk in the shoes that have been polished quite well and are clearly comfortable. But this shoes are quite big, so this also presents a daunting challenge that the new breed will have to ensure that the show must go on.
There will be no room to do less than what has been done. Perhaps a little easier because the foundation has been laid and much has been achieved, but again to keep the same momentum and even make further improvements is something that we will be expecting as the people of this city.
Poverty is a world phenomenon, affecting mainly developing countries such as ours. While eThekwini has many rich and well-to-do families, an awfully large number of people are also very poor. And they are putting their hopes before this government to make their lives better.
We have challenges of HIV and Aids that are threatening our people every day, among other social ills.
Therefore, it will not be enough to boast about having put this city on the international map as a modern, world-class city while a large section of our people remain poor or even below the poverty line.
Speaker, today also becomes a very emotion-charged moment for me as I have to stand and speak about the responsibilities that you have which are based on the expectations of improved service delivery by our people.
Unlike some other municipalities who have experienced some very huge administrative and governance challenges, you in eThekwini begin your new term on a less difficult footing in that the challenges that this municipality may have faced in the past term are not those that were so significant as to collapse the entire council – something we saw in uMsunduzi, uKhahlamba, Indaka and uMhlabuyalingana.
Therefore, even though you have a challenge of ensuring that you achieve equities among all your disparate communities that form this municipality, at least you have a good foundation upon which to begin to move forward.
Speaker, eThekwini is one of the municipalities that are currently under forensic investigation by the provincial government.
We view this factor alone as a positive opportunity for all of you starting today. This alone should be enough to warn you that whatever incidence was the basis for this investigation, we do not expect to see a repeat of this in the new era.
We are in agreement that at present all that is being investigated remains only as allegations until everything has been finalised. However, the challenge before all of us in the new council is that we should work harder to ensure that we avoid operating in a manner that opens us to any form of suspicion of wrong-doing.
I am proud that as the municipality, you have set up an ethics and scopa committees because at times we find ourselves vulnerable to making mistakes simply because there are no mechanisms to assist us with early warning signals before problems erupt.
I would implore you to commit yourselves to using these structures to guard against flouting any regulations or legislation as we go about our business of service delivery.
The third era of democratic local government presents us with an opportunity to do things differently to ensure faster change in our communities. Our approach for the incoming term will be focused on the new way of doing things. I wish today to reiterate the new way of doing things at local government as set out in our Budget Speech of 2011 and 2012, and really beseech all of you gathered in this chamber today to focus on this approach, which is as follows:
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We want councillors to effectively serve the communities and be accountable to the communities that they serve;
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As councillors, you must ensure that the voice of the community is heard more in the governance of municipalities through the strengthening of Ward Committees;
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Ensuring that the Integrated Development Plans are going to be the visions of communities and will align plans of all spheres of government;
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I want to see that you, together with the municipal manager and other managers, conceive and intensify campaigns against corruption and fraud;
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We will help you to ensure that we professionalise local government by ensuring that competent people with requisite skills are employed;
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Professionalise municipalities by ensuring that no officials occupy political positions so that they can focus more on service delivery;
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No persons with bad records including (criminal, maladministration and corruption) will be employed in municipalities;
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Strong monitoring and evaluation of service delivery.
Here in eThekwini, you have been fingered as being not careful in the area of Supply Chain Management. As I have said, these are allegations at this stage. But I would just like to stress the importance of watching this area very carefully.
A decision to not tolerate any form of corruption and maladministration has been taken by South Africa nationally. This has to be adopted at all levels of government. And because local government is at the coalface of service delivery, any form of corrupt or generally illicit practices cannot be tolerated as it will impact adversely on the very people we are all trying to service.
We are pleased that eThekwini has always respected the statutory deadlines in terms of the submission of financial statements and that you have had no disclaimers other than what was pointed out in the procurement process and which is being checked upon as we all know.
We expect that the new mayor will ensure that you continue on a positive mode in eThekwini. There is no room for mediocrity and laziness.
The recent election - free and fair as it may have been - has, however, shown all of us that the votes that our people give to political parties shall never be a blank cheque by which those who govern can make of them as they please. As our democracy matures, our people’s vigilance is increasing and they are becoming more assertive about the things they want and need. This means that our state of readiness to respond to their demands has got to be above reproach. We need a local government that is professional, delivery driven and free of all the ills as we have witnessed in the past.
Speaker, when the allegations of misappropriation in the procurement processes of the city emerged, there was suddenly a lot of pressure for us as the province to intervene. Some quarters were even colluding with the media to pressure us to intervene.
I wish to reiterate our position that we will always follow the provisions of the law and the Constitution, which clearly state that where there is no cooperation from the municipality itself, the MEC for Cogta shall have to intervene. But again this intervention is first followed by an investigation of our own. We are not allowed to intervene simply on the basis of allegations.
In the case of eThekwini, the situation was even better because, the city had proactively initiated an investigation of its own to look into those allegations.
Having said that, it remains important for me to emphasise that we shall continue to watch over the city of eThekwini, along with all the other 61 municipalities that we have in the province.
We wish to indicate that we would rely also on the other political parties and members of the public to work with us in constructively watching over our beloved city of eThekwini. After all, the city does not belong to the mayor or city manager or councillors. It is a city for all who live in it. It is a city of South Africa as a whole.
Let us all work together to make this city work for us and to help it to take South Africa forward.
Once again congratulations to all who have been elected, and I wish you all the best in working for the people. My good luck message to you is “stay in touch with your people at all times and be accountable to them; serve with dignity and diligence”.
Thank you
Source: KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
