TO borrow a line from Charles Dickens – ‘It was the best of times, it was the worst of times’. This perfectly sums up Hibiscus Coast and Ugu District municipalities.
HCM received an award, which carries a R1-million prize, for being the best performing municipality in the medium to large category in KwaZulu-Natal.
The awards were presented by the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) at a gala banquet held at the International Convention Centre in Durban last Thursday.
But at the other end of the scale, at a MuniMec, a forum between Cogta’s MEC Nomusa Dube and 61 KZN mayors, the Ugu mayor, Ntombifikile Gumede caused quite a stir when she revealed that a general worker had claimed R58 000 in overtime.
And her fellow mayors were taken aback to learn that her municipality had forked out R3,9-million in overtime in one month. We can only hope that Ugu will stop this looting of overtime.
And we congratulate HCM on its fine achievement.
