Mayor plants seed of hope
MALESELA Parks Sebatjane, mayor of Mogalakwena municipality, addressed a fully packed audience on Tuesday night at the Park hotel during his State of the Municipality Address.
MOKOPANE – MALESELA Parks Sebatjane, mayor of Mogalakwena municipality, addressed a fully packed audience on Tuesday night at the Park hotel during his State of the Municipality Address.
“I am proud to say that this occasion occurs only a month and 11 days after deployments in council were made by the ruling party to strengthen governance and the delivery of services to our people. The overall reception of the changes by the people of Mogalakwena is indeed a humbling source of inspiration which should motivate us to always do the best for our people,” Sebatjane said.
Tolly Mashamaite, regional secretary of the ANC, Phophi Ramathuba, Limpopo MEC of health and Ndo Mangala, district senior manager, were a few of the guests who attended the address. Mangala said: “It is the darkest hour before the break of dawn, this is a new chapter for Mogalakwena with exciting possibilities and Sebatjane is going to make it a reality.”
Sebatjane said, “During the last month we hosted the provincial EXCO meet the people, led by premier Stanley Mathabatha, where our people raised pertinent issues on a whole range of service delivery related matters for attention by both local and provincial government, he visited us again on July 18 to honour Mandela Day. Last Thursday we hosted an oversight visit by the delegation from the National Council of Province (Ncop). The Ncop delegation stated that the municipality is focusing on strengthening good governance, institutional efficiency and increasing the pace of delivery of services, however, they advised that we can do much better by interacting with our community and responding faster to queries regarding delivery of basic services raised.”
“The State of the Municipality Address we present today is a product of the public participation forums undertaken for the 2015/16 IDP and budget sessions in accordance with applicable legislation and council approval processes.”
Sebatjane gave a thorough breakdown of each of the following matters and Bosveld will be reporting on each matter over the following weeks.
Electrical services: The municipality has a licence to supply electricity to a 2 800m² area, with Eskom accounting for the bigger slice. Out of 79 396 households within our municipality, 71 163 are electrified which constitutes 91% with a current backlog of 9%. We are, in collaboration with Eskom, embarking on a programme to reduce that moving target significantly by 2020.
Water services and sanitation: It is of utmost importance that we need to expedite efforts, in collaboration with the provincial government, to obtain approval from the department of water and sanitation to source the currently unused five mega liter water allocation from the Doorndraai dam to supplement our current supply in Mokopane and adjacent peri-urban settlements. Failure to do so before March 2016 will cause a serious portable water supply challenge.
Solid waste management: Our municipality has only two approved landfill sites, located in Mokopane and Rebone township. The letjema waste management programme has been introduced resulting with creation of temporary jobs for the youth, however ongoing review and monitoring is necessary.
Housing: The department of cooperative governance, human settlements and traditional affairs (CoGHSTA) allocated 970 housing units for the 2014/15 of which 327 houses are completed and handed over to respective beneficiaries.
643 houses are still under construction due to a delayed finalisation of foundation design. It is expected that the houses will be completed by the end of the current calendar year.
Road and storm water: Phase one of the N11 widening of 25 km, from Mokopane town to north, by SANRAL will commence in the second quarter of 2015/16 financial year. Consultations with stakeholders and private property owners who may be affected have started.
Human recourses: Only two of the seven senior management positions are filled. Efforts are underway expedite the filling of all vacant positions and we can confirm that this municipality will appoint competent staff that meet the requirements for the job.
Finance: The municipality has in the past five years achieved four unqualified and one qualified audit reports. This happened due to adequate internal controls and competent senior staff in the finance department and we are in the process of finalising financial statements for the 2014/15 audits.
Governance: Stability has been restored; the executives and council are meeting in accordance with the prescribed schedule. However, there is room for improvement with regard to the work of council committees. “We are glad to present the summary of our budget for 2015/16 as follows; Total budget: R1 082 246 405, capital budget: R409 888 680 and operating budget: R783 557 725.
“The future of our municipality is tied to our unwavering commitment, hard work, and forging of human solidarity with the people of Mogalakwena and the private sector partnerships,” Sebatjane strongly concluded his address.
