Polokwane Municipality strategises for 2024
The discussions at the three-day event focused on ethical leadership, the collection of revenue from businesses operating in townships and rural areas.
POLOKWANE – The Polokwane Municipality hosted a three-day strategic planning session at Euphoria Golf Estate earlier this week in order to sharpen strategies and ensure a seamless path towards its vision.
The event was attended by councillors from the political parties represented in council, key personnel, organised labour and partners such as Eskom.
“We indeed conducted a thorough analysis of whether we are still on the right path to realise our vision as a municipality and the kind of decisions that will help us to remain on course,” Mayor John Mpe said at the closing of the event.
Mpe mentioned that Polokwane is among 15 cities that account for 50% of the population of the country.
“We appreciate that Polokwane is witnessing exponential growth through catalytic projects such as the R5 billion investment in the construction of the state-of-the-art academic hospital, population growth and the expansion of new settlements. We acknowledge that this growth must not be negatively construed as presenting threats. Instead, with every phenomenon comes not only challenges but also opportunities,” Mpe said and added that residents must embrace the growth of the city as an important ingredient for the realisation of metro status.
The discussions at the event focused on ethical leadership, the collection of revenue from businesses operating in townships and rural areas, especially at the University of Limpopo precinct, illegal services connection, the threat of crime, proper overtime management and the synchronisation of planning across all directorates.
The timeous completion of groundwater projects to bring about an additional 28Ml per day of water supply in the city also received prominence. Mpe emphasised that key to these projects is the Seshego Water Treatment Plant which will be completed in March 2024.
Project management was also cited as a matter of concern and Mpe stressed that this will require collective leadership.
“Members of the mayoral committee and Section 79 committee chairs must provide quality oversight over projects. This must not be limited to walkabouts but thorough understanding of project specifications,” Mpe said.
The mayor added that city cannot build a metro without control over D-roads.
“We need to obtain a resolution to ensure the return of D-roads back to municipalities in line with the decision of the governing party. Local government is the closest sphere of government to the people,” Mpe stated.
Mpe announced the move to Phase 1B of the Leeto la Polokwane project to ensure that this important transport service is expanded to other areas.
“Solely relying on Eskom to buy electricity is no longer sustainable. Thus, we have agreed to move with speed to implement the energy mitigation strategies to off-set the impact of load shedding on our communities. We must allocate land for the development of solar and wind farms and the municipality will explore the procurement of electric fleet, in essence electric vehicles,” Mpe announced.
Mpe emphasised that Polokwane is the socio-economic nerve-centre and logistics hub of the province.
“This means that we shoulder great responsibility to contribute to the growth of not only our local economy but that of the whole as a province. Hence, we have long embarked on catalytic projects working together with the private sector to ensure that we stimulate the local economy and unleash job opportunities within the city. We therefore emerge from this strategic planning session with renewed vigour to continue building a better city that captures the imagination of the hearts and minds of our residents. We also emerge with a clear mindset towards the achievement of a metropolitan municipality. Metro status is not just for its own sake, but to build an impactful city and ensure meaningful change in the living conditions of our residents,” the mayor concluded.
