As part of charting a way forward following the swearing in of new councillors, uThukela District Municipality held a Strategic Planning session over a three-day period from February 20 to 22 at Alpine Heath in Bergville.
With this session, the district aimed to position itself to be able to deal with challenges and lay a foundation for the municipality’s performance to achieve its targets for the next five years.
Speaking during the opening of the session, District Mayor Siphiwe Mazibuko said, as the leadership, they have huge responsibilities placed upon their shoulders by the electorate.
He said the main focus will be on two core functions, ie water and sanitation provision. “We must make sure that we provide quality and hygienic water as well as decent sanitation to bring back dignity to the people,” said the mayor.
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The mayor told the house that: “We have to set ourselves realistic and achievable goals. When we go and engage our communities and they raise issues, we need to respond to those issues as a matter of urgency to make sure we improve on service delivery.” He also emphasised the important role traditional leaders should play in the development of their communities.
In the past five financial years, the municipality has worked with various strategic partners in providing training and capacity building to the staff.
The priority for the municipality is thus to improve this even further, which will include implementing a differentiated approach towards providing capacity building programmes.
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When assessing the level of compliance in the municipality, the recent audit outcome indicated that important elements which are a foundation of good governance are in place, even though there is room for improvement.
Like other municipalities, uThukela District Municipality is faced with a challenge of a backlog in bulk and aging infrastructure. This was acknowledged by the mayor himself.
Poor communication between uThukela District Municipality and the public was also identified as a major challenge that needs to be looked at. It was felt that some residents are still not aware of the platforms available for them to participate in municipal decision-making processes.
Over the next five years, the municipality aims to extend and deepen its community engagement platforms to bridge that gap.
Departments were afforded an opportunity to reflect on their own achievements and identify gaps. This session indicated the need for the municipality to review its vision and mission for the next five years.
The municipality is working towards achieving a clean audit in the financial year ending on June 30, 2018.
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