the municipal diary launch, Klerksdorp
16 January 2007
Chairperson of South African Local Government Association (SALGA) North West
� Honourable Councillor, G Lobello,
Members of the Provincial Executive of SALGA North West,
Honourable Executive and non Executive Mayors,
Municipal Managers,
Officials from our partner organisations,
Programme Director,
Let me preface my contribution with a parable from the bible: Luke 4 that
might be inspirational to both the rationalist and spirituals among us. It
goes:
'One day as Jesus was preaching on the shore of Lake Gennesaret, great
crowds, pressed in on Him to listen to the word of God. He noticed two empty
boats standing at the water's edge while the fishermen washed their nets.
Stepping into one boat Jesus asked Simon, its owner, to push out a little into
the water so that he could sit in the boat and speak to the crowd from there.
When he had finished speaking he said to Simon, "Now go out where it is deeper
and let down your nets and you will catch a lot of fish!"
"Sir", Simon replied, "We worked hard all last night and didn't catch a
thing. But if you say so, we'll try again." And this time their nets were so
full that the net almost burst open!
A shout for help brought their partners James and John the sons of Zebedee,
in the other boat; and soon both boats were filled with so much fish and on the
verge of sinking.'
Programme Director and distinguished guests,
Whether or not you believe the parable, is neither here nor there. However,
regardless of whatever philosophical positioning you have elected for yourself,
the correctness of the strategy and tactics is a given. You too will have to do
that which Jesus had to do.
You have to do this in order to ensure that the strategies and tactics we
adopt ensure that you leapfrog the performance of your municipalities from mere
entities of compliance to developmental organs geared towards improving the
quality of life of our communities.
"What did Jesus do?" We may ask. What he did was to analyse both the
subjective and objective conditions at the time, and accordingly advised on the
best workable solutions to a well-defined problem. In simple language, Jesus
had to strategise. We too have to strategise. "You do not get apples from a
lemon tree."
Programme Director,
Twenty two (22) days from today we will mark fourteen years (14) since the
establishment of the Local Government Negotiating Forum which negotiated a
number of issues related to local governance. The development became the
harbinger of the democratic local government we have today.
In 2000, this historic development culminated in the discarding of
race-based local authorities. Underpinning the 2000 local government spectacle
was the recognition that municipalities are steadily emerging as the fulcrum of
our developmental intergovernmental system.
An emergent realisation was that democratisation and continued racial
fragmentation are irreconcilable and that ethnically based local government
would remain a hindrance towards a united, non racial, democratic South Africa.
The character of our present decentralised government system places our
municipalities at the cutting edge of our developmental agenda.
Our state transformation process has placed local issues in a hitherto
unheard of prominent position on the development trajectory. Being at the
coalface of service delivery, our municipalities cannot but feel the heartbeat
of our communities.
Programme Director, Comrades and colleagues,
I must repeat that "you do not get apples from a lemon tree." To plan is to
choose. We are gathered here today to launch what we refer to as a 'municipal
diary,' the first of its kind in South Africa. This joint project between
SALGA, Provincial Treasury and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA)
is a very important milestone in our quest to place local government in its
rightful place when it comes to our developmental agenda in the province.
This diary contains the most useful and valuable information that every
Mayor, Councillor, Municipal Manager and other senior official in a
municipality needs to know. It should not just be seen as an instrument to
monitor compliance but an enabling tool to assist major role players inside and
outside a municipality to produce better results.
It must facilitate better and enhanced internal processes of policy
determination and implementation. It must be used for strategy implementation,
and for planning.
A diary is a tool for planning. It is an instrument for strategy
implementation. Following the example of Jesus, we need to think big, to
explore the environment within which we operate and how it could possibly
change to our benefit or detriment. We must use our diaries to record the
events occurring in our environment in order that we should anticipate them in
the future.
In his book, The Power of Strategy (1997), J Loewens, succinctly suggests
that the second important thing for any leadership is to think competitive
advantage. As municipalities we need to be cognisant of the advantages that we
have over others.
Whilst sharing information is important as part of our co-operative system
of government, solutions to the economic challenges of Mafikeng City Council
may not be replicated in the city council of Matlosana.
Equally, the predominantly rural character of some of our municipalities
suggests that economic activity is higher only during harvest times. As the
leadership of these municipalities, we need to be familiar with these farming
cycles and what they represent for our economic development. A diary will help
you to track and understand these.
Loewens also advises that, it is important to think added value. I must
caution that there is a tendency in the public sector to dismiss the importance
of 'added value' as a private sector issue. This falsehood is premised on a
certain lunacy among us, which holds that our communities have no choices but
to accept what we provide.
Needless to say that, community dissatisfaction with service delivery often
results in protestations and voter apathy. Not withstanding this, in the public
service, 'added value' may derive from the speed with which services are
delivered, the quality of such services and the accuracy with which they are
delivered. A calendar of events, based on the use of a diary, will assist us to
schedule our delivery processes.
Equally important is to think performance. Thinking performance enhances
your ability to benchmark yourself against the best. To do this, we must have
milestones against which performance is assessed.
Monthly and quarterly performance assessments are considered to be the most
critical compared to annual performance assessments. This is because the former
allows you to develop urgent and immediate interventions. These assessments
have to be scheduled and executed on a continuous basis.
Programme Director,
Let me not belabour the point much. Suffice to say, as a department, we will
continue to provide the necessary support to local government and forge working
relationships and equal partnerships with all stakeholders whose interest is to
enhance the performance of our municipalities.
Our task must not be seen as only monitoring compliance, but providing
support where necessary to ensure that financial management in municipalities
guarantees a certain level of certainty in terms of results/output driven
programmes that seek to make a positive impact on our people's lives.
Last year we undertook a number of programmes to assist municipalities. Key
among these was the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) councillor training
conducted in all our districts. The objective was to ensure that our new
councillors were capacitated to perform their role in the financial reforms of
their municipalities. Continuous support on budget and financial management
reforms will be accelerated this year. This will also seek to ensure better
co-ordination and integration between planning processes across all spheres of
government.
Programme Director,
We have also seen with the conclusion of 2006, the finalisation of some
audits by the Auditor-General's Office. I must hasten to say that the
preliminary outcome of these audits as at December 2006 is a cause for concern.
The last update we received from the Auditor-General indicated the
following:
* Out of twenty five municipalities (25), there are only four (4)
unqualified audit opinions.
* There is one (1) qualified audit opinion.
* There are 10 (ten) disclaimers.
* Five (5) adverse audit opinions.
* The remaining five (5) were not finalised.
This state of affairs is shocking, very worrying and must receive priority
attention by Provincial Treasury, the Auditor-General and the Department of
Developmental Local Government and Housing. I am aware of the challenges facing
municipalities with the introduction of the new Generally Accepted Municipal
Accounting Practice (GAMAP) / Generally Recognised Accounting Practice (GRAP)
accounting standards and their requirements.
This calls for a more co-ordinated and concerted effort amongst provincial
role players and municipalities to ensure that we mobilise the necessary
resources and support that will enable municipalities to produce better results
when it comes to financial management and accountability. I wish to call upon
municipalities to continue to strive for quality changes in our quest to build
a local government that is responsive to the needs of its communities.
This year will mark the first year since the last local government election
in March. We must commit ourselves to do the following:
* ensure that we appoint the right personnel with the right skills in vacant
positions guided by available resources
* we continue to strive for harmonious relations between the political and
administrative organs of the municipality
* ensure that councillors assume their rightful role in the affairs of the
municipality
* strengthen the working relations between municipalities and the provincial
government in order to ensure better coordination
* accelerate the pace of municipal finance reforms in municipalities.
May I conclude by taking this opportunity to thank the officials from SALGA,
the DBSA and the Department for the successful production of this tool. I hope
that this project becomes an annual effort with all stakeholders. We must also
take this opportunity to congratulate all the municipalities that won in the
2006 Vuna Awards.
Remember, "To get an apple, you must plant an apple tree and from a lemon
tree expect only lemons."
I thank you.
Issued by: Department of Finance, North West Provincial Government
16 January 2007
Source: North West Provincial Government (http://www.nwpg.gov.za/)
