In school I always struggled with Maths, I could just never wrap my head around numbers. Needless to say, I dreaded showing my report card to my parents. There would always be questions surrounding my maths marks. The class average was particularly low, one quarter. My marks had not really improved but because the average was so low, I thought I could make my parents see that I was doing well when the average is taken into account.

“I don’t care what the rest of the class is doing, you need to do better,” was the reply from my Dad.

When I first saw the news that our municipality was rated the best or at least the most financially stable in the province, I thought of that discussion with my father. There is no reason why residents or municipal officials should be celebrating this ranking. It is worrisome that some in our municipality are giving themselves a pat on the back for this “achievement”. Or are they trying to tell us, we are lucky to be living in J.B. Marks at least it is the best in the province. When Ratings Afrika, started their assessments in 2011, Tlokwe municipality was rated as third-best in the country. Isn’t that what we should be working towards or better yet to be the best in the country?