Programme director
MEC for Agriculture, Conservation, Environment & Rural Development, Boitumelo Tshwene
Executive Mayor of Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati, Cllr Kaone Lobelo
Mayor of Mamusa Local Municipality, Cllr Kenneth Tshipelo
Mayors and Councillors present
Bagaetsho!
Today’s event signal yet another of our commitment as government, to effectively do away with any corrupt activities that deny our people their right to a better life through the provision of quality services. It is yet another of our efforts as government, to bring about a cleaner, transparent and accountable local government.
Corruption remains at top of government’s agenda and to show its commitment to turn the wheel around, we have derived systems that are intended to rid the country and the province of corrupt officials.
It is no coincidence that the roll out of the district anti-corruption forums throughout the province happens at time when the North West provincial government under the leadership of Honourable Premier Maureen Modiselle, has firmly taken a stand against fraud and corruption.
This commitment has been clearly been demonstrated on a number of occasions as those found to have been looting public funds are being brought to book. In our province alone, we have seen senior government officials being investigated for their alleged involvement in corrupt activities and that tern action from government will be taken. It means we as government are serious in fighting corruption and we mean zero tolerance.
A tendency of disregarding supply chain processes and Treasury regulations has developed in government, local government included. Yet another tendency is that of officials who collude with service providers by manipulating the system in return for money. We therefore appeal to all sectors of the community, to keep their ears on the ground and eyes peeled and report any suspicious criminal activity to the nearest police station.
Lets work together to fight this cancer thats eating our society. In her state of the province address, Premier Modiselle said “Corruption is a curable disease, it is one virus that depends on its host to survive. This administration will not be a willing host of corruption” Let us work together in fighting corruption and all corrupt activities. Together we can do more. We can together resist to become the host of this virus by reporting corruption.
We are currently at a time where local government is mainly characterised by poor service delivery. There exists a perception that this sphere of government is rife with fraud and corruption. It is therefore up to all of us to change the situation and we can only do that by working together with law enforcement agencies.
There are also programmes intended to restoring the electorate’s confidence in local government. The local government turn around strategy has specifically been developed to accelerate service delivery, beef up the human capital element, ensure proper internal controls, sound finance management and accountability, and above all, functional and effective municipalities that are free from corruption as well as corrupt officials.
A re direng mmogo bagaetsho bophirima, a re thusaneng mo go lwantsheng bogodu jwa puso. Boleleng mapodisa le botlhe baba maleba ka bogodu jo bo diragaslang mo mafapheng a puso. Ke rona fela jaaka baagi ba re tla fedisang bogwenegwene jo re bo itemogelang. Ke kgwetlo mo go rona jaaka baagi ba bophirima go itwanela.
We will be failing our people, if 10 years after the inception of a democratic local government system, we are unable to build on the lessons learnt in order to develop politically and administratively stable system of municipalities.
Thank you. ke a leboga. baie dankie.
