New municipal manager has plans to improve Govan Mbeki Municipality

The newly appointed Govan Mbeki municipal manager, Elliot Maseko, wants to change the municipality for the better.

Maseko has strategies planned to improve service delivery, financial management, governance and institutional development.

He wants to implement these strategies during his five-year office term.

Maseko plans to apply the knowledge and experience he gained when he left the municipality 10 years ago.

After he left, he joined the eMfuleni Municipality as the deputy municipal manager for corporate services and also worked for the

National Treasury as the advisor at the government technical advisory centre.

“I was advising on the municipalities’ reparation and financial recovery plans, implementation and monitoring.”

Maseko worked in various provinces under the National Treasury, including the Eastern and Western Cape, to provide broader advise on the institutional matters.

“My last work for the office of the Treasury was with the Mangaung Metro where I worked for three months as the national cabinet representative.

“My role compared to that of administrator because the municipality was under national government intervention.

“I was appointed through the Finance Minister’s office to lead the intervention.”

Maseko holds a masters degree in business administration and a certificate in municipal finance management.

Maseko said GMM needs to fix basic services before they can talk about highly strategic issues such as economic development and investments.

“No one wants to come to the town with electricity outages, sewage spills, roads with potholes, unmaintained street lights and uncollected refuse.

“No one will bring their family and money to such a place. If things remain as they are, no one will want to invest in our municipality.”

Maseko said basic service delivery also includes grass cutting, maintenance and cleaning of water drainage systems, road markings and proper street and traffic lights in all the towns.

“These are the things with which I’m going to begin.”

Maseko said there are several places where service delivery lapses, especially in Bethal, Leandra and Evander.

“The community will soon notice the impact of the work that we will be doing in these areas.

“We also need to ensure our cemeteries in all areas are maintained and are kept clean because it is where people converge on weekends. These are sacred places.

“We have started a maintenance programme in eMbalenhle that will be taken to other towns.”

Maseko said poor payment for services is a huge problem.

“We purchase bulk electricity from Eskom and water from Rand Water and we get metered and billed and we have to pay.”

According to him, the municipality currently owes Eskom more than R3 billion and more than R600 million to Rand Water. The combined debt is close to R4 billion.

“The only way to stop it from escalating, is for the community to pay for services.”

Maseko also warned residents who are benefitting from the municipality’s indigent policy, but build rental rooms on their stands.

He pointed out an ill-metered property in Ext 26, eMbalenhle, with 10 rental rooms. It is also registered under the indigent policy.

“That place’s service consumption is much higher than that of a single indigent family.

“This thing of overloading the electricity network is unacceptable.

“The municipality must account to the government on our indigent beneficiaries, because we claim that money from the equitable share to subsidise poor families.

“How can someone be classified as indigent, when they have 10 rental rooms to rent out at more than R1000 per room per month?

“We are going to get to that place and install meters and correct their indigent status.”

https://www.citizen.co.za/ridge-times/290618/zuma-introduces-a-new-municipal-manager/

Maseko also said illegal electricity vendors are taking money away from the municipality.

He urged residents not to sell or buy illegal electricity.

“Rather buy from legal vendors appointed by the municipality.”

Maseko said less than 60% of the municipality’s consumers pay for services.

“We have to reach at least 85%. It shows that there is still a long way to go to get consumers to pay.

“We need to apply credit control and cut off services where people are not paying.

“Revenue for the municipality must be generated to start community projects and provide services to the people.”

Maseko said the community is free to check on how the municipality is using their finances once audited by the Auditor-General. That information is open to the public.

“It is available on the municipality website,” said Maseko.

Maseko also vowed they will also hold the contractor or official responsible for incomplete municipal projects accountable to recover the public money.