11 December 2008

By Ndaba Dlamini

The West Rand is one of the best performing district municipalities in the country after winning two accolades at the annual national Vuna Awards 2008 held at Emperor’s Palace in Ekurhuleni.

The district clinched the Good Governance award in the key result areas: Category C, and was second runner up in the Best District Municipality category at a glitzy ceremony on Wednesday, 10 December.

The awards were attended by the minister of provincial and local government Sicelo Shiceka; South African Local Government Association CEO Xolile George; West Rand District Mayor Faith Matshikiza; and mayors and representatives of 141 municipalities from around the country.

On 27 November 2008, the West Rand, which comprises the three municipalities of Mogale City, Randfontein and Westonaria, emerged the Best District Municipality in Gauteng at the provincial Vuna Awards in Sandton.

The annual Vuna Awards promote cooperative governance, best practice and excellence in South African municipalities. Now in their fifth year, the Awards provide a rigorous methodology to measure municipal performance and provide an objective basis for comparing municipalities against set of benchmarks for municipalities to aspire to.

Since the initiation of the Awards in 2003, South African municipalities put themselves forward to compete with peers in a friendly spirit of peer learning. The Vuna Awards 2008 assess the performance of South African municipalities in the 2007/08 municipal financial year.

Speaking at the ceremony, Shiceka said municipalities have made a lot of progress in the past year in providing quality services to residents.

“A lot of progress has been made but a lot of challenges lie ahead, especially in the area of skills development, monitoring and evaluation of municipal performance. These are areas need to be consolidated and strengthened,” he said.

Shiceka said the awards ceremony coincided with the launch of Operation Clean Audit, an initiative by provincial and local government ministry to ensure that all municipalities in the country achieve clean audits by the year 2014.

Through Project Consolidate, municipalities have managed to fill gaps in critical skills areas like engineering, according to Shiceka.

More people have access to clean water and electricity in 2007 compared to 1994. Shiceka noted that the number of households with access to clean water increased from 59 percent in 1994 to 88 percent in 2007.

“We are also pleased to announce that over 80 percent of households in the country now have electricity compared to 30 percent in 1994,” he said.

At the awards, the City of Johannesburg walked away with the Best Metro Award whilst Nkangala and Laingsburg scooped first prize in the Best District Municipality and Best Local Municipality categories respectively.