ADDRESS BY MEC FOR DEPARTMENT OF CO-OPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL
AFFAIRS, MR NORMAN MOKOENA AT THE SALGA MUNICIPAL EXCELLENCE AWARDS, FOREVER
RESORTS LOSKOP DAM: 20 MAY 2009

Programme Director;
The Chairperson of SALGA Mpumalanga, Councillor S.K. Mashilo
The Honourable Mayor of Steve Tshwete, Councillor Mantlakeng Mahlangu
Members of the Provincial Executive Committee of SALGA
Honourable Executive Mayors
Honourable Speakers
Honourable Councillors;
Representatives from our Social Partners and NGO’s
Officials from the different spheres of Government
Ladies and Gentlemen

It is with great honour and humility that I address this SALGA Municipal Excellence
Awards, barely a month after our 4th democratic National and provincial elections, and
barely more than a week after l have been in office. On the 22nd of April 2009, people of
this province and the country at large came out in their numbers to cast their votes, that
has ushered in the present government led by President Jacob Zuma. The fact that
millions of people braved the cold, rainy and hot sun in some areas on that day to cast
their votes indicates that they believe in the democratic process and they believe that the
ANC government can provide them with a better life.

Contrary to the view that was painted by the sceptics and the prophets of doom, our
people know what they want and what they believe in and will not easily be fooled. The
people of Mpumalanga and South Africa have shown their confidence in the African
National Congress, when they went out to vote on 22 April 2009. 1,152, 698 people in
Mpumalanga have agreed with the African National Congress and its manifesto and
11,650,748 people in the country have also agreed with it by voting for the ANC. To all
the sceptics and the prophets of doom, we say the people have spoken. Let us give an
applause to the people of South Africa for showing confidence in our democratic system
and in the ANC government.

Perhaps it is important that as we begin this term of government we should take stock
and assess our performance over the past five years. In assessing our performance we
must be very critical of ourselves. We must acknowledge that although we have done a
lot, we still have a lot to do. We must critically analyse the results of the recent elections.
The fact that we got 11,650,748 of the votes as the ANC and the second and third party
got 2,945,829 and 1,311,027 of the votes respectively is a matter that should be of great
concern to us. We must work hard to ensure that we open the margins even more wider.
It is important to note that despite the many challenges and difficult conditions that many
of our people still find themselves in they still value the importance of their vote and have
continued to use it. That some still find themselves without houses, inadequate water
and sanitation, but still believe in the ANC is a huge vote of confidence in us that we
cannot take for granted.

During the door to door campaigns that we held as we crisscrossed the province, we
were exposed to the harsh and squalor conditions that our people find themselves in.
The memories of what we came across are what will drive us as we begin this term of
government. These memories are what will make us work even harder because we
know the realities that our people are faced with. That is why we say that we cannot take
the confidence that the people have shown in us for granted.
The expectations of our people are quite high, after returning us back into power in the
manner that they did. Since our people visited us back into power, they expect nothing
else from us but service delivery, service delivery and service delivery. They expect us
to deal with unemployment, poverty and hunger.

As practisioners of Local Government, whilst we are still sorting out the long term
strategic issues of service delivery, there are practical things that we can do now to
alleviate the plight of our people. In this regard let me add a penny worth of suggestions
about things we should consider implementing immediately to show a sense of business
unusual, that our hands are on deck and leaving to the commitment that “together we
can do more”. We should start with quick wins such as regravelling roads where access
is a challenge, set aside resources to employ our people on Extended Public Works
Programmes such as de-bushing, rehabilitation of graves, cleaning municipal roads and
storm water drainages etc, etc, etc.

The recent reconfiguration of the government departments by President Jacob Zuma at
national and by Premier David Mabuza provincially affords us a very rare opportunity to
realign ourselves and ensure that we address the needs of our people more effectively
and efficiently. I am sure that you are all aware that the department that I am leading is
no longer called the Department Local Government but the department of Co-Operative
Governance and Traditional Affairs. This indicates the need that has been identified to
pay special attention to matters of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
In line with the re-alignment, the department is repositioning itself to better monitor and
support municipalities and our esteemed Traditional councils under our Amakhosi. We
have identified a number of programmes which we will place strong emphasis on
supporting municipalities.

One of the key interventions we are introducing in the
department is to strengthen our in house capacity. We will be introducing a unit that will
focus solely on Performance Monitoring and Support of municipalities. This unit will be
headed by a Senior Manager and will amongst other issues ensure the development and
implementation of a performance and management system in municipalities, review their
performance, oversight reports such as section 46 and annual reports. It will also
develop support programmes, support the strengthening of skills and capacities in
monitoring survey and evaluation and mobilise resources for interventions in
municipalities. This unit will strengthen our ability to monitor and support our
municipalities.

Its our belief that the department must not just be seen as a watchdog, which only
comes in when there is a problem and is nowhere to be seen when the problem starts
and manifest itself. We must do away with the notion which is becoming very popular
that we enjoy putting our municipalities under section 139(1) (b) of the Constitution of the
Republic of South Africa, because we don’t. We are confident that if we work together
we will succeed in improving the performance of our municipalities.

Matters of capacity building will also be placed high on our priorities. We are currently
conducting a skills audit in all municipalities. This skills audit is focusing on
organizational development. From this skills audit, we will be able to check whether
officials have the right capacity and it they are correctly placed. Where we have
completed the audits working with our social partners, we will introduce a number of
interventions to close the gaps that have been identified. Some of the capacity building
programmes that we will embark on in the financial year will include the following:
• Training of municipal officials on Financial Management NQF level 6 by
University of Wits,
• Training of municipal Debtors and Credit Control officials on Financial
Management NQF level 3 by the Southern African Institute for Chartered
Accountants( SAICA)
• Training Municipal Managers and Councillors on change management
• Training of Councillors on municipal leadership development

Programme Director, Matters of Financial Management, by our municipalities continue to
be of great concern to us as a department. The growing debts in our municipalities
cannot continue like this. We must find possible solutions that will make sure that we
deal with this problem. Some of these growing debts can be attributed to poor credit
control measures and either in accurate or inappropriate billing systems. There is also a
tendency by some municipalities not to keep an audit trail and to overlook the
importance of quarterly audits.

The audit outcomes for the 07/08 financial year are still a matter of great concern. The
fact that 7 municipalities received qualified audit reports and 3 received disclaimers
means we cannot go to sleep peacefully. I must also congratulate all the municipalities
who received unqualified audit reports. I would like to pay special tribute to Nkangala
District and all its local municipalities who have done well and all received unqualified
audit reports. Part of their success can be attributed to the effectiveness of their audit
committees. I therefore urge all districts to revive and strengthen their Audit Committees.
In an effort to address these gaps and other shortcomings around financial management
we will revisit and strengthen the Memorandum of Understanding that we entered into
with the Department of Finance, to ensure that it is not found wanting on implementation.
This MOU will ensure that both the department and Provincial Treasury provide the
required assistance.

In the past two weeks, the department has been engaged in a process with our
municipalities to review their Integrated Development Plans (IDP). This exercise was to
make sure that we test the credibility and strength of these IDP’s. Out of all the IDP’s
prepared and adopted by municipalities in 2008, 7 had them categorised as high, 5
medium and 9 low.

From the engagement we have had with municipalities over the past two weeks,
preliminary reports that l have received indicate that there is a lot of good work being
done in terms of improving our IDP’s. However l must hasten to add that there is still a
lot of work that can be done. We will be taking the findings that have come out of our
engagement and we will be using that to assist us develop the required assistance that
our municipalities will need, to make sure that indeed we give them the right assistance.

We are encouraged that all municipalities have developed their Spatial Development
Frameworks,
The role of our Traditional Leaders in matters of governance continue to be key to us.
The department is committing itself to the operationalization of Traditional councils. To
this end, the gazetting of names of the members of Traditional Councils will be finalised
soon. Government is considering the amendment of Section 81 and Schedule 6 of the
Structures Act to enable those Traditional Leaders who want to delegate, to do so. This
is aimed not only to strengthen participatory local governance, but also at ensuring that
our Traditional Leaders are taking part in the process of enhancement of service delivery
at local level.

Our municipalities are now competing in the global market, and as result they need to
compete with different stakeholders for the resources available. As a result in an
environment where investors are always looking for the best places to invest, it becomes
very important that we all create a conducive environment in our municipalities. We must
begin to compete with the best in the world for investments. We must engage potential
investors, be it local or foreign investments and give them the confidence that they need.
As front line recipients of investments, municipalities must create ready to move in
factory space with all the infrastructure, services, such as water, electricity etc, and land
when called upon. It is essential for all municipalities to have industrial parks, which are
close to the different modes of transport.

As I indicated earlier, that as we stand at the dawn of a new era, we should take stock of
the progress we have made thus far and indeed acknowledge the achievements that we
have made. During our campaign through out the province, we were encouraged to see
that a number of communities are receiving basic services which they were not receiving
before. It was very heartening to hear old people telling us their stories of how they used
to walk long distances to get water, but today those services have been brought closer
to them. Today out of 926 050 households, 601 178 of them have access to water, of
these 445 938 households receive free basic water. Through the Water For All flagship
we are continuing to address the backlog of 171 586 households. We have also
continued to roll out electricity in our communities. Today 583 505 households have
access to electricity and 219 373 are receiving free basic electricity.

I must indicate that the quality of drinking water that we are providing remains a huge
challenge. A recent audit of the drinking water quality known as the Blue Drop
Regulatory Report Card 2009, has indicated that out of 18 the municipalities in the
province only Mbombela is providing water that is 100% safe and fully complies with all
requirements. Now surely this cannot be a good picture. I would therefore like to urge all
municipalities to contact the Provincial office of the Department of Water Affairs to assist
you deal with this matter. It is also important for you to make the necessary provisions to
deal with this matter because you are sitting on a time bomb that can explode at any
moment.

Programme Director in 2003 we introduced a new cadre of civil servants, who are the
foot soldiers of government the Community Development Workers(CDW). When
introducing the concept of CDW’s, in 2003, the former President of the Republic of
South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, said, “Government will create a public service echelon
of multi skilled Community development Workers who will maintain direct contact
with the people where these masses live.

We are determined to ensure that government goes to the people so that we
sharply improve the quality of the outcomes of public expenditures intended to
raise the standard of living of our people. It is wrong that government should
oblige the people to come to the government even in circumstances in which the
people do not know what services the government offers and have no means to
pay for the transport to reach government offices.”

Today, as we are gathered here, can we say that we have fully and effectively utilised
our CDW’s to optimally achieve what we wanted to achieve? The answer is no, we have
not tapped into this service effectively. We have left them to run without proper
monitoring and guidance. Let alone that we have not provided them with adequate
working tools we have also not given them the necessary support. We must all revisit
this programme with the aim of strengthening it and using it optimally. I must say that
there is a lot of talent and skills that are abundant with the CDW’s, but if we do not tap
into that skill then we run the risk of that skill being misused. I request all Mayors and
Municipal Managers to work with us as we seek to ensure that the CDW programme is
revitalised and strengthened. We must all make sure that the CDW's work and they
service their communities.

Programme Director, tonight is a night of celebrations, but l felt that it was important that
l share these few points with you. As we award those municipalities who have performed
well we must make sure that the criteria that we use is in line with governments
programme of action and the manifesto of the ANC. I am sure that next years awards
will be should be more linked to the manifesto. Of the ruling party.
In conclusion l must add that l am not here to police you and behave like a school
principal, but l am here to work with you. Working together we can do more, and l am
sure that with SALGA and all our local government stakeholders we will achieve a lot
and make sure that we strengthen our local government system. We are aware as
government that there are huge challenges.

We commit ourselves to getting in the
trenches with you and together we will ensure that we succeed. As the incoming
Member of the Executive Council responsible for Co-operative Governance and
Traditional Affairs, in achieving these noble goals, l would then invite indulgence of this
assembly in building partnerships for sustainable development.
Now that the elections are over, let us work together to improve the lives of our people.
Guided by our manifesto we must pay special attention to:
• Creation of decent work and sustainable livelihoods
• Education
• Health
• Rural development
• The fight against crime and corruption
I thank you