Mayor says council has a good story to tell

SECUNDA – Ms Lindi Masina, executive mayor of the Govan Mbeki Municipality, said during the recent council meeting that they have a good story to tell residents.

“Despite the differences that we have as different political parties in this chamber, we all have a common vision to improve the lives of people.

“We have registered progress in other areas of service delivery and we have managed to persuade others to take charge of their civil responsibilities.”

Ms Masina further said: “We have succeeded in creating a conducive environment for our people to engage with us in dialogue in the spirit of promoting the open-door policy.

“We are not saying everything is honky-dory, but we believe that our collective efforts can turn the situation around.

“We know that some of our people are not happy with our service delivery, but I would like to assure everyone that we are doing all in our power to improve our situation.

“Despite the inadequacy of our financial coffers, we can proudly say that there are projects that are taking place whose objective is to make this municipality a better place.”

Ms Masina said they have also finished some projects that are currently functional and are providing service to residents.

She said they are fixing potholes in all the towns, but the rain has affected their efforts.

“However, we will continue to put all these plans in place notwithstanding the militating factors such as the weather,” said Ms Masina.

She said there is an improvement in the Licensing Department that gave them problems in the past few years because of the slow-pace of service delivery.

“We have added more officials in this department to accelerate service provision through speed, efficiency and proficiency.

“We need to keep this momentum through constant monitoring and strict supervision,” said Ms Masina.

She said they will be handing over all finished projects to residents, including the eMzinoni Thusong Centre, in the coming few days.

“This is a state-of-the-art centre that will render a wide range of services to residents and will ease the pain of our people to travel long distances to acquire government services.”

Ms Masina also mentioned the Skills Development Centre that will be established in Bethal.

She said this will become a fountain for producing skilled people in various fields.

“This is a milestone achievement and we are proud to be associated with this development.

“The ruling party has crafted a number of poverty eradication programs which are yielding positive results as we speak.

“I should also indicate that Government is doing everything in its power to ensure that we meet the Millennium Development Goals in so far as poverty eradication is concerned,” said Ms Masina.