VIJAY NAIDOO: Good Business Basics – Honest introspection is sorely needed
"Until the political and administrative leadership of poorly performing local municipalities are willing to own up to their shortcomings, and honestly introspect, there is little likelihood of meaningful and sustainable change occurring anytime soon."
I would love to be a fly on the wall at some (underperforming) municipality when the visit of a senior national, or provincial official, say the Premier, or god-forbid the President is announced.
The panic stations and sheer pandemonium as the municipal manager and mayor rush to put plans in place for the main roads to be miraculously cured of potholes, and long dysfunctional traffic lights to suddenly spring to life.
I remember early last year when we were blessed by two visits by the then Premier, and one by the President over a couple of weeks.
It was the longest period we were serviced by an uninterrupted water supply by Ugu.
My rambling was provoked by an advert that caught my eye in the Business Times last week for a municipal manager for Ngwathe Municipality, based in the Free State.
In the advert, the municipality describes itself thus: ‘A well established local municipality of integrity, and a leader of best practices, a high performance organisation’.
Now, those are terms you would never dream would be associated with a local municipality in this country, but there you go, this is how Ngwathe Municipality views itself – an organisation on top of its game with little room for improvement.
The rose-tinted glasses this municipality sees itself through is far from reality.
This is the home of the town of Parys, that puts its residents through months without water.
With the anger of the residents reaching boiling point, the municipal offices and the home of the incumbent mayor’s mother were torched.
In December 2022, the ConCourt decried the ‘woeful and reprehensible behaviour’ of the municipality in not paying Eskom for power purchased, resulting in Eskom ‘throttling’ supply to them, to the detriment of all residents.
This ‘high performance’ organisation has been the recipient of a qualified audit for the last three years, having in the most recent audit incurred R31m in irregular expenditure, R251m in unauthorised expenditure, and R61m fruitless and wasteful expenditure, certainly nowhere near a ‘leader in best practise’ when it comes to financial prudence.
Until the political and administrative leadership of poorly performing local municipalities are willing to own up to their shortcomings, and honestly introspect, there is little likelihood of meaningful and sustainable change occurring anytime soon.
Vijay Naidoo is the CEO of the Port Shepstone Business Forum. He writes in his personal capacity. The views expressed are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect those of this publication.
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