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Phil C. Pretorius writes:

On 5 December 2000, the communities of Meyerton, Walkerville, DeDeur, Rissiville, Vaal Marina, Suikerbos Rand, Daleside and surrounds went to the polls to vote for a new local authority. By the morning of 6 December 2000, it was clear that the people had spoken and in the first council meeting soon after, the local municipality of Midvaal was established. It was a rocky road for the Democratic Alliance taking over from the ANC and on inspection they realized that this municipality would have to be built from the ground up. Urban legend has it that DA Councillor and later MMC and Executive Mayor, Cliff Hartman, took R100 from his pocket and walked into the bank that morning to open a bank account for the Midvaal Municipality.

The uphill battle began and after a few years the DA began to turn the tide. Soon Midvaal was starting to show promise and could pay their debts. Taxes were recovered and administration was starting to fall into place. The DA appointed competent staff and consequence management was introduced. Liquidity rose and soon Midvaal started winning awards for financial management. Plans were put in place to replace water pipelines and build new reservoirs. Development was given an injection with the Klipriver Business Park and the Heineken and Ferrero Rocher deals. Years of town planning neglect had to be picked up and pulled together. Midvaal also inherited a number of informal settlements. Plans to formalize Sicelo, Lakeside and Mamello were put on the table and to date large areas have been serviced with roads, water and electricity infrastructure, ready for the provincial government to build the promised houses for the communities.

The Democratic Alliance led Midvaal to its first unqualified (clean) audit for the 2013/2014 financial year and has achieved such for seven consecutive years since. Various other awards such as most pro-active Mayor and best municipality in Gauteng followed with Midvaal achieving Ratings Afrika’s Best Municipality in Gauteng numerous times, and a place in the Top 5 in SA in 2021 under DA control. Although a number of very influential and competent people have contributed to this success story it is the team of Midvaal staff, the DA’s political leadership and the support of our wonderful community in this beautiful central part of the Vaal Triangle that makes Midvaal the place to be and all of us PROUDLY MIDVAAL.

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