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Executive Mayor,2003 - 2005 The mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality is Advocate Lentswe Mokgatle. Here is a copy of the address he gave at the official opening of the council in March 2003. Mr Speaker, party whips, members of the Mayoral Committee, honourable councillors, executive mayors, the municipal manager, directors, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen: It is indeed an honour for this Council to have you here today, to reflect with us on the journey that we undertook last year. The challenge that always remains with us is what have we done and what do we continue to do to lift from the shoulders of our people, the intolerable burden of poverty and underdevelopment". Our intentions for the past year as Mogale City was to begin to provide answers as to how we would improve the quality of life for our people. In line with our vision, Mr Speaker, we committed ourselves to making this City a desirable place where anyone could come and live, invest and visit. As a city we have a vision that is the envy of all who read it and seek to embrace it. None of our efforts would work without a committed citizenry who actively engage with us in our plans and questions our deliverables every step of the way. In order to achieve this challenge, community engagement became our top priority. The establishment of ward committees for every ward within this municipality afforded us the opportunity to realise participatory governance. To comply with legislation and our constitutional mandate was indeed a big challenge. What was supposed to be a simple step to get communities to choose representatives who would assist Councillors and Council to articulate their needs, became a long and dragging process. May I be the first to congratulate the efforts of each Councillor and staff to making sure that we complied with law to realise all 32 wards with ward committees as provided for in our Standing Rules and Procedures. Monthly ward meetings afford us the platform to engage with our communities on the pace of delivery and sharpen our plans for the remainder of our governance years. We undertook two major road shows Mr Speaker that enabled us to restore confidence in our residents that the municipality was functioning and secondly reported back on the progress of service delivery as per our IDP. The setting up of ward offices will go a long way to ensure continued and robust engagement with respective communities. Not only have we extended participation broadly Mr Speaker, we have also made sure that particular sector groups have a voice that is heard loud and clear. Our Mogale City Youth Forum has been launched and is operational. We have a disability office that begins to ensure that this municipality addresses their needs holistically. This year will see an extension of service delivery to abused women through provision of shelter and counselling services. We hope the setting up of ward offices will be a haven for other sectors to come forth and articulate their needs so that planning of service delivery programmes accommodates them too. Mr Speaker let me then share with you the deliverables in concrete service delivery terms of the past year. This is in no way an end in the fight towards lifting the burden of poverty and underdevelopment within Mogale, but is indeed a giant step towards that direction.
Community services: Quality of life for people is measured amongst other things by how their immediate surrounding contribute to their general welfare. When one retreats from making a living in a harsh world, is their humble abode all that they wish for? Can they provide a sleeping place where there is laughter and peace and there is no fear of attack for their households? The questions are endless. Every resident believes they have a contribution to make to their own welfare, but uppermost is whether they are healthy to do so. The provision and access to health facilities remain a challenge. With the ardent onslaught of HIV/AIDS within this region, we continue to stake a claim in curbing the spread of the disease. The mobile clinics for Tarlton and Rietvallei are soon to be permanent health facilities by the end of June 2003. In keeping to acceptable standards of health provision, we continue to reduce the numbers of patients seen at our clinics to 120 a day. This is because our health education programmes and proximity to clinics afford our people affordable health care at their doorstep. For those affected and infected with HIV/AIDS our support to opening of Home Based Care Centres and training of volunteers puts us amongst our colleagues as a caring municipality. Our awareness programmes to the entire community makes sure that there is no stigma attached to the disease. We hosted an art programme for young school kids on HIV/AIDS and used their posters on the conception of the disease as exhibition for our annual World Aids Day celebration. The past year, Mr Speaker, the festival was in partnership with the Gauteng Department of Sports, Recreation, Arts and Culture. We will continue to draw in new partners into the fold of fighting the spread of the disease and raise awareness levels amongst the people of Mogale City. Our vision of establishing an AIDS haven for Mogale is bearing fruit with a site being identified in the rural areas and the process of calling for partners in construction under way. Communities within Mogale will not have to walk long distances to access community centres. The first phase of the Rietvallei and Ext 12 Community centres have been completed and handed over to the respective communities for use. Our existing sports facilities are being upgraded for various communities, Munsieville, Kagiso, Azaadville, Vleiloerie Recreation Centre and Johanna Botha Sports Park to be precise. We believe that the people of Mogale have to be holistically developed and would encourage them to make use of these facilities. Sports complexes for Ga Mogale is finished. Kagiso Ext 13, Tarlton, Muldersdrift and Hekpoort are in the process of also boasting new facilities. Our efforts Mr Speaker in these projects is to circulate the rands and cents amongst our people by creating job opportunities that these ventures present. The process of providing multi purpose community centres to Muldersdrift, Magaliesberg, Ga Mogale and Tarlton is well underway with the majority nearing completion and will soon be open for business. Preserving the rural beauty we have and providing services that uplift the quality of life for people, Mr Speaker is a challenge we are ready for. Provision of cemeteries for our rural areas continues to be a big challenge for us. Land is available but sometimes is not suitable and continual search is on to realise the provision of decent cemeteries for our rural population. The upgrading of exisiting cemeteries is on course with Kagiso and Sterkfontein cemeteries showing huge signs of improvement. Mr Speaker, social development and upliftment is not only the work of this Council, it is indeed true that the people of Mogale are active participants in ensuring that the city grows and indeed becomes a place where all want to live in. The challenge faces every resident as to how proud do we feel about our surroundings? As cities and towns do battle to keep their environment clean and green, Mogale has contributed to those campaigns by winning the Gauteng trophy of Botho ke Bontle competition. To all the wards and residents of Mogale keep it up. Our fight against illegal dumping will continue with the delivery of 240 litre bins to households in phases. The opening of buy back centres in Kagiso and soon in Munsieville together with education programmes on recycling should continue to win this City the award of being the cleanest city in Gauteng. In the effort to curb illegal dumping we are challenging wards to occupy empty spaces within the townships and turn them into a poverty alleviation project of making food gardens until Council resolves what to do with such empty spaces.
Public utilities Mr Speaker, public utilities make up the backbone of what can be seen by the naked eye as development by our residents. The programme of tarring of roads in townships continues with our backlogs welll within reach. Our strategy not only to tar but also look at storm water drainage has brought relief to a lot of households. With the expressed need to provide temporary relief to some of our informal settlements, provision was made of ablution facilities, refuse skips and street lighting for Pangoville and Tudor Shaft. Mr Speaker let me highlight that jealously guarding the provision of these services is a joint effort between Council and the respective residents. Vandalism of such facilities puts development miles back and provides for waste of resources. The consequences are serious as they also affect the environment and general health conditions of our people. We continue to ensure safety of our roads and neighbourhoods through the provision of street lighting at major intersections and developing residential areas. The N14 junction at Sterkfontein road will receive lighting to ease traffic volumes which build up our economy as business moves goods between major ports and tourists enjoy the Cradle of Mankind and our rural tranquillity. Mr Speaker, we are still faced with the challenge of providing free basic electricity, a challenge we are exploring and will provide a programme on in the near future. Water is an essential service and constitutionally no one should be denied access to clean water. Munsieville with its expansion will also see the building of a new reservoir. The extension of water provision to rural areas is continuing with us negotiating with landowners successfully to deliver water to tenants. The challenge is to extend tenure rights to people in rural areas and therefore make provision of basic services easier for the municipality. Rural development remains our focus area for this year. The provision of infrastructure gives the municipality a huge opportunity to create favourable conditions where the economy can grow and local jobs can be created. The strategy is to ensure that jobs that are created are quality jobs and our people are empowered to undertake future contracts within the area when the opportunities arise.
Housing and land Mogale City faces the challenge of turning informal settlements into viable and durable habitats for our people. Various workshops have been held to explore possibilities of providing alternative housing to people who do not qualify for subsidies but cannot secure loans from banks either. Rural housing has become a burning issue for the municipality. The various challenges rural people are subjected to because of repeated evictions calls for a vigorous strategy from our side to address shortage of housing within these areas. The municipality has and is in the process of acquiring land for various types of development. Let me allay some fears here Mr Speaker, it is the intention of this Council to preserve our rural surroundings. May I hasten to add that this will not be done at the expense of development. Our people are in dire need of proper housing and means of sustaining themselves. In partnership with rural communities, and with the objective of boosting tourism within Mogale, we are in the process of establishing agri-villages, where people can live in dignity and sell their labour to employment givers within their environment, retire at the end of a working day to their own house and enjoy proper family life. This process needs partnerships with various bodies from landowners to intended beneficiaries to bring skills within the rural areas to empower people to create their own jobs and not migrate to urban areas in search of employment. We also believe this form of habitat will showcase the diverse nature of Mogale. I am happy Mr Speaker that we are continuing to hold meetings with various farming bodies within Mogale to share with them our vision for development in rural areas and to curb the spread of evictions of farm workers by understanding each others roles and responsibilities and in the end contribute to good relations within the City.
Local economic development Mr Speaker, no one can do for us what we need to do for ourselves. The creation of wealth lies within the people of Mogale. It is their creative spirit that we need at this time. The successful and sustainable development of the SMME sector cannot be overlooked. The provision of Council land, sufficient infrastructure and where possible capital investment will indeed take this sector far in creating jobs locally. The opening of the Information Centre for SMME will soon bear fruit before the end of June 2003. We believe this centre will be a source of information and training for upcoming entrepreneurs. The database that it will house of opportunities available within Mogale and within the District will empower SMMEs to stake their claim in the local economy. The Spatial Development framework and our Public Transport Strategy will afford access to the whole of the District and improve economic opportunities for those who care to take them. The challenge remains for us as Council to align our operations with the vision of making the city a desirable place to work for. The delivery of good quality services rests on the shoulders of a committed, skilled and professional work force. Mr Speaker, we are in the process of filling up critical managerial posts with prospective candidates assuming duty by April 1, 2003. We hope that this recruitment drive will afford us the calibre of candidates who will speed up delivery on agreed IDP priorities. It is envisaged that by the end of this financial year the key institutional capacity issues will be in place. All these plans Mr Speaker would not be up and running without the commitment of our residents to continue to pay for their services. May I commend our residents who have made use of our credit control policy to clear off their arrears. Mr Speaker, coupled with this is the challenge of ensuring that our indigents make use of the provision in our indigents policy so that they continue to receive basic services without being penalised due to lack of payment. This challenge also goes to our ward committees to ensure that the municipality is aware of who needs help in accessing basic services.
Governance The new system of local government has indeed thrown a challenge at us to assess whether as a municipality we comply with legislative imperatives or not. I am delighted to announce that a comprehensive legal compliance audit has been undertaken. Our by-laws have undergone a comprehensive review and will soon be up for public comment before the end of this financial year. We would urge communities to engage with councillors and ward committees to familiarise themselves with the new by-laws. Mr Speaker, in summary our flagship projects for this coming year will be:
In conclusion, Mr Speaker may I thank the Mayoral Committee, for their intelligent reflection and questioning of our strategic direction as embodied in our operations; Councillors for continued input in interpreting and monitoring service delivery for the area; the Municipal Manager and directors for juggling development and alignment of directorates that will deliver quality services to our people, staff of Council for delivering under pressure and embodying the new vision and walking with us to make Mogale City a desirable place to be in. Finally, I personally would like to thank the District Mayor, Cllr Ncube for the vision of building a strong district by getting the local municipalities to think as a unit and plan as a region.
Official opening of Council address by the Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality
Cllr Lentswe Mokgatle Wednesday, 13 March 2002 Mogale City
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 Previous Executive Mayor,
Advocate Lentswe Mokgatle
Useful links The structure of the Mayor's office
Speeches
Key contacts Street address City Hall Cnr Commissioner and Market streets Krugersdorp Postal address PO Box 94 Krugersdorp 1740 Telephone: (011) 951-2278 Fax: (011) 953-4571 Spokesman and Communications Director Dante Mashile Legal Advisor Sury Pillay Executive Support Manager Jackie Lamola |
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