21 November 2007

By Ndaba Dlamini

JOBURG is tops - it was recognised as the best-performing metro in Gauteng at the annual Vuna Awards.

The City was the overall winner in the best metro category, beating Ekurhuleni and the City of Tshwane to walk away with a certificate, a trophy and a whopping R750 000 cheque. The awards were held in Midrand on Friday, 16 November.

Best district and best local municipality were won by the West Rand District Municipality and Lesedi Local Municipality, respectively. They also scooped the overall winners' cheque of R750 000.

The provincial winners will go on to compete nationally on 5 December 2007.

The Vuna Awards are an initiative of the Department of Provincial and Local Government, in partnership with the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the National Productivity Institute, and the South African Local Government Association. They seek to promote a culture of performance measurement and bench-marking as well as highlight municipal best practice in delivering services to citizens.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, which was attended by Johannesburg City manager Mavela Dlamini, Ekurhuleni Executive Mayor Duma Nkosi, City of Tshwane Mayor Gwen Ramokgopa and several district and local municipality mayors, the Gauteng MEC for local government, Qedani Mahlangu, said the objectives of the awards were to motivate municipalities to enhance their performance and productivity.

"As we pursue the global city region perspective, it is important for each municipality in Gauteng to determine its developmental and service delivery priority areas.

"It is of vital importance for municipalities to take into cognisance the Gauteng provincial government priorities and ensure that every municipality has the necessary capacity to fulfil its developmental mandate as defined in the Municipal Structures Act," she said.

Congratulating the winners, Mahlangu said the three metros were participating for the first time at provincial level following findings of the Gauteng Five-Year Review on Local Government, which revealed that an overwhelming majority of households lived in the three metropolitan areas.

"I hope our municipalities [in Gauteng] will also do us proud in the national stages because in Gauteng we are trendsetters in everything we do and the various programmes we implement to accelerate service delivery to the people."

The 14 municipalities in Gauteng were assessed based on the following key performance areas:

• Service delivery and infrastructure development;
• Local economic development;
• Municipal financial viability;
• Municipal transformation and institutional development; and
• Good governance.

Mahlangu urged the municipalities to use the Vuna Awards successes to recoup the R18-billion debt owed to them by various entities, including government departments, the private sector and residents.

"We must be able to recoup the money owed to us so that we can use it to better the lives of our people. Local government is about people and we must make sure we deliver quality services to them at all times."

Source: joburg.org.za