Local Government Highlights for 2013/2014
The Western Cape department of local government's annual report for 2013/2014 has been tabled before the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) today. The department has received a clean audit opinion from the Auditor General.
Some of the highlights mentioned in the report includes:
Seven of the top ten best performing municipalities in the country are in the Western Cape, according to the December 2013 Municipal IQ survey.
Twenty-nine out of the thirty Municipalities in the province managed to attain unqualified audits in their latest financial years with 11 of the 29 getting a further accolade, that of getting clean audits. Only 22 municipalities in the entire country managed to get clean audits in the year under review.
The Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell, says the accolades are the result of hard work and having all communities' best interests at heart.
"Over the past year, the department has provided support and capacity building programmes to all 30 municipalities in the province, with the intention of enabling municipalities to best deliver the necessary services to communities. This year the Department has met or exceeded almost all of its performance targets," says Bredell.
The Minister says the successes of his Department is further highlighted by a statistics South Africa report which indicates that thousands more people in the Province today receive basic services which they did not receive before.
"We also helped isolated and poor rural communities to gain access to government services through our community-based projects such as the Thusong Programme and Community Development Worker Programme. The Thusong Programme has this year assisted 31 440 people through the Thusong mobiles system and about 1, 2 million people through the Thusong Service Centres themselves. In addition 24 826 cases were referred to government services through the Community Development Worker Programme."
Bredell says another highlight was the fact that the province managed to spend more than 98% of its Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) expenditure.
"This is only possible through the dedication of municipalities, sector departments and other role players."
Despite the progress, much still needs to be done to improve the living conditions of many communities.
"Municipalities are at different stages of development and many service delivery challenges still remain. My Department will continue to monitor the province and provide support so that the municipal entities can deliver on their mandate. We remain committed to doing our best to keep improving the lives of all the residents of the Western Cape."
Statement issued by Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, Anton Bredell, October 22 2014
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