Municipal financial officers and other interested parties will be gathering to discuss the impact of the 2007 national budget on local governments.

The City of Cape Town has embarked on several programmes to create awareness about the value of wetlands as part of its World Wetlands Day celebrations.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has so far built 3 000 houses this financial year. According to housing manager Mvulani Mapu, the municipality has set aside R292-million for housing delivery.

Good financial management, improved debt collection levels and sound liquidity have led to improved long- and short-term credit ratings for the City of Cape Town.

African cities have the fastest rate of urbanisation in the world. As more people move to the city, there is a growing danger of excluding diverse groups, and a conference will look at ways to prevent this.

Some R1-billion has been set aside for legacy projects that will ensure Joburg continues to benefit from the 2010 Fifa Soccer World Cup long after the final whistle has been blown.

The eThekwini Metropolitan Council and the Durban Automotive Cluster (DAC) are to inject R7- million over the next three years into the provincial automotive industry.

Statistics South Africa is to conduct an ambitious new survey, second only to the population census, to help evaluate socio-economic policies and improve service delivery in the country.

A groundbreaking social housing project in the eThekwini Metropolitan Council is to provide low and middle income earners with housing units for rental at a nominal rate, with the option to buy at a later stage.

In just one day after the system became mandatory, Telkom reported that over 80 percent of their customers countrywide were using the new 10-digit dialling pattern.

Work on the Gautrain Rapid Rail Link Project went full steam ahead over the past festive period as Bombela is working around the clock to have it ready for 2010.