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MEC Saki Mokoena addressing the Local Government Summit.
Free State Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) MEC Saki Mokoena says the Local Government Summit will come up with an action plan to assist municipalities to achieve clean audits, boost revenue collection and improve the billing system.
The summit held in Bloemfontein has brought together all municipalities, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), Water Boards and Eskom to assess governance, performance and service delivery in municipalities.
For years municipalities have failed to produce clean audits.
“We are dealing with the issue of revenue generation and the billing system because the two are linked and municipalities are not able to properly bill both the residents and the industry. So, they unable to generate revenue and recover costs for the services they are providing. The third aspect we’re dealing with is the effective implementation of the grants. The entire spectrum of grants in terms of accountability and results that are quantifiable to make that we built on major networks,” says Mokoena.
The exchange of knowledge is seen as an essential way of reaching the goals of local government and promoting good and accountable governance. #InclusiveGrowthandInvestment #RebuildingLocalGovernment#InclusiveGrowthandInvestment pic.twitter.com/nI25q4pcmx
— Free State COGTA and Human Settlements (@FreeCogtaHS) December 3, 2024
VIDEO| MEC Mokoena says the summit plans to reposition local government
Meanwhile, SALGA in the Free State says municipalities are unable to deliver on their mandate due to lack of administrative capacity, lack of senior managers and political instability.
Provincial SALGA chairperson, Lawrence Mathae says SALGA is working on helping municipalities to build capacity and appoint qualified senior managers to assist municipalities.
“We are preoccupied with that agenda to build capacity, respond to daily challenges that are in municipalities. But also, to create an atmosphere where municipalities can craft programmes and solutions on their own. In the past there’s been a high turnover of vacancies rate particularly at senior management level and obviously if municipalities do not have senior managers who have relevant competition skills to administer good governance, they will not be able to deliver on the mandate,” says Mathae.
