18 April 2008

By Nangamso Mabindla

SEVERAL key projects were discussed when a Buffalo City delegation met their Swedish counterparts during a working visit to Gävle.

The trip to the Swedish city recently was made for the delegation to take part in a youth activities project. Both cities also applied to the Swedish Association of Local Authorities International Development Agency (Salaida) for funds for new projects.

Buffalo City's manager for development co-operation, Darby Gounden, said that the City had submitted business plans for new projects for the next financial year.

These projects involve management co-ordination, good governance, public participation, youth development in sport, electricity master plan, multi-agency incident management and emergency services, and infrastructure asset management.

"All of these are very important projects for the running of the municipalities - both Buffalo City and Gävle; we hope that we do get the funding from Salaida. This year we also want to focus a lot more on youth development in the two municipalities," Gounden said.

Leading up to 2010, they wanted to put more emphasis on youth activities and sport, she explained.

Before the team left for Sweden, the Swedish International Development Agency (Sida) and the national Treasury sent consultants to interview Buffalo City and Gävle personnel about the partnership over the last four years.

"The consultants were happy with our partnership and said it was a benchmark for other partnerships. This was due to the good working relationships between the councillors and officials from the two municipalities. We also discussed the partnership with Salaida; we talked about challenges and the successes of that partnership."

The new projects for which the City applied for funds, would also benefit it in its efforts to deliver services to its people. "We applied for R2,6-million that will be used for partnership activities. All the seven projects are important for our cities."

Gounden was excited about the multi-agency incident management project, which focuses on public safety and disaster management. "When we hosted Ironman 70.3 in January, the organisers were very happy with our public safety. Our Swedish counterparts together with our public safety personnel helped ensure the smooth running of the event."

The municipalities would know by June if their applications were successful.

Source: BuffaloCity.gov.za