
NELSPRUIT – Mbombela Local Municipality’s (MLM) delegation, which recently returned from a study trip to Indonesia, is to present a report to council on its findings soon.
The trip, with the aim of improving the revenue collection from informal settlements, was expected to cost local taxpayers an estimated R165 909.
Municipal officials from finance, human settlements, water and sanitation, as well as members of the mayoral committee for finance, and human settlements and rural development formed part of the group which visited Batam on the island of Java, “where similar issues affecting our city were successfully addressed,” Cllr Cathy Dlamini, executive mayor, reportedly said.
She said the trip’s research would benefit the municipality in future. According to the mayor, Mbombela faces the challenge of providing services in areas with high population growth and limited resources.
It was reported earlier that MLM faces financial problems. In July, it secured a loan of R160,2 million from the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA). Of the total, R21,6 million is to finance a fleet, whith the rest to be spent on the municipality’s capital expenditure programme, like bulk water, electricity, sanitation and the establishment of new townships.
The benchmarking trip was meant to specifically tackle issues around Msholozi, which had not been formalised and are not in the municipality’s control. During an ordinary council meeting two weeks ago, Mr KM Mkhonto, an ANC councillor, accused the DA of not acting like the official opposition it is, but instead bringing the council’s business into disrepute.
Mkhonto criticised the DA of opposing the trip on the grounds that it was meant to address the challenges of Msholozi, instead of focusing on Matsafeni, which forms part of Mbombela but where residents have electricity, according to the councillor.
Lowvelder reported earlier that Sembcorp Silulumanzi, one of the service providers, is currently providing services in Batam. The DA questioned whether it might not have been more prudent to interact with the company before undertaking the trip to determine whether the Indonesian model would be applicable locally.
While Mr Joseph Ngala, spokesman for the municipality, would not divulge the names of the individuals who formed part of the delegation, nor indicate when exactly the report was expected, he explained that most benchmark exercises could not immediately be implemented as this most often had financial implications for which funding was not be readily available. The implementation mostly needed to be budgeted for in subsequent financial years.
According to Ngala, the implementation of findings from other study trips undertaken since 2009 were ongoing. “Some are still in planning stages and some have been implemented,” he said.
“Issues of environmental management are ongoing and some are still being planned. The benchmark exercise undertaken to Johannesburg to learn about the implementation of the governance model was adopted when the new administration came into office in 2011,” he said.