A NEW committee was established last month to attract investment and focus on long term development goals for the City.
The Finance Capital and Investment Committee held its first meeting at City Hall recently, and the newly established committee, chaired by City Manager Sibusiso Sithole, will look at big strategic ideas the City is driving and how best to implement them.
The committee will meet once a month and is comprised of representatives on a management level including the Deputy City Managers of Finance, Community and Emergency Services, Governance and International Relations, Corporate and Human Resources, as well as the Chief Operations Officer and Chief Audit Executive.
The heads of departments of other units will also attend. They include Electricity, Human Settlements, Engineering and Durban Solid Waste as well as other key strategic units.
While the issues to be discussed will be finalised as the committee meets, some key areas include revenue management, procurement management, asset and infrastructure maintenance plan, catalytic projects and working capital management to name a few.
Sithole said the committee would drive “business unusual strategies”.
“We will look at the economic environment we are operating in and how it has changed. As South Africa faces a tough situation economically, we as the City are part of that and we cannot take decisions as normal. We have to see the economic benefit from the decisions we take as the City,” he said.
Sithole said the strategic committee was derived from legislation and will look at big strategic ideas the City was driving.
“We will not interfere with the daily operations of the different units. At times we may require experts to come in and advise us, providing external support, to better inform our strategic thinking of issues but this will not affect day to day operations,” Sithole said.
He said the committee would have a level of oversight reporting to the Executive Committee, Audit Committee and Council as a whole.
“Our decisions will be reviewed. This is an opportunity for a strategic view of where the City is going, the future outlook and our determined efforts to drive the target towards that. I am sure this will have a positive impact on a number of aspects,” Sithole said.
