KLCBT and CMLM on the integrated development plan
The final meeting for this took place at Mbombela Stadium on Friday and Diamond invited all residents to come tell him what they need and gain insight into the IDP.
MBOMBELA – The City of Mbombela Local Municipality (CMLM) is reaching out to communities across the city to participate in the review of its integrated development plan (IDP).On October 19 the municipality presented the IDP review to the Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism (KLCBT) and other business stakeholders. The plan was also presented to the Mpumalanga House of Traditional Leaders and meetings with various communities have continued throughout this week.
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It offers all residents the opportunity to make presentations about issues they want addressed by CMLM. Municipal manager Neil Diamond said all available resources will be prudently utilised to ensure that ratepayers derive full value for money for the services provided by the City.
“I have informed my management team that we are servants of the people and as such, we must be guided by their needs,” Diamond said.
COO of KLCBT, Linda Grimbeek said it asked the city management a year ago to get their finances in order and to spend every effort on the revenue enhancement strategy, and get service delivery up to a world-class standard. A year later they are very happy that CMLM has surpassed their own goals in terms of their turnaround strategy, and said that surpluses generated will go a long way towards meeting service-delivery goals and concluding long outstanding projects.
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Diamond has changed the management approach to embrace organisational efficiency and operational effectiveness with a goal to improve service delivery. Grimbeek supports this goal, and added that the main goal of their partnership with the City for the following year is to kick the entire region into a higher gear in terms of developing a world-class destination.
“CMLM’s role in this will be to partner in the development of the Makonjwa Mountains World Heritage Site, developing Mbombela into a vibrant capital city as well as to develop a township economy, including tourism routes and attractions. We have requested R250 000 for pre-feasibility studies for these, as well as R1 million to be set aside for early implementation of some projects and further feasibility studies,” Grimbeek said.
Diamond concluded that spending on repairs and maintenance must be increased, and the municipality will put measures in place to improve capital spending in order to maximise service deliver.
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