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05 December 2009

Opening Remarks of the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Koketso Calvin Seerane at the occasion of the Launch of the Muldersdrift Thusong Service Centre, Mogale City

Programme Director;
MEC for Infrastructure in Gauteng, Nonhlanhla Mazibuko;
Speaker of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Noluthando Mangole;
Members of the Mayoral Committee here present;
Leaders of the Alliance;
Municipal Manager of the Mogale City Local Municipality, Mr. Dan Mashitisho
Senior Management of Mogale City Local Municipality;
Business leaders;
Distinguished guests, friends and people of Mogale City.

We stated in our State of the City address earlier this year that we “remain unflinching in our commitment to the upliftment of our rural communities as stated at the beginning of our term of office.” We want to repeat that commitment today. We do so, Programme Director, because our constitution states that municipalities must structure and manage all their functions and processes in a manner that prioritises the basic needs of the community. We are determined to provide sustainable service delivery that puts equal premium on our urban as well as rural communities. We have been advised by the State President, Jacob Zuma that “people in the rural areas also have a right to electricity and water; flush toilets, roads, entertainment and sport centres; as well as better shopping centres like those in the cities.” The Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Shiceka, outlined his vision for the department around July 2009 and said, amongst other things, that we must focus on programmes that promote citizen engagement and participation. He cited the Thusong Centres as one of the areas that promote this engagement and participation.

Today, therefore, marks a milestone in our efforts to provide sustainable services to communities in rural areas through cooperation between ourselves as a municipality and our provincial government. This rural development effort is aimed at producing viable rural economies and sustainable livelihoods. Contrary to many assertions, ours is a government driven by the will of the people. The nine decades that drove the African National Congress to the respectable heights it occupies today were based on its steadfast commitment to listening to the wants and needs of the people. This is where the singular attention to the people our municipality and provincial government derives from. We do not just listen but we act upon the wishes of our people. We therefore wish to welcome the MEC and her entourage, the guests and all of you who have joined us as we bring government to the people. We trust that the community of Muldersdrift will use these facilities optimally and shall safeguard them because they are the property of the people.

I thank you.

05 December 2009

Opening Remarks of the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Koketso Calvin Seerane at the occasion of the Launch of the Muldersdrift Thusong Service Centre, Mogale City

Programme Director;
MEC for Infrastructure in Gauteng, Nonhlanhla Mazibuko;
Speaker of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Noluthando Mangole;
Members of the Mayoral Committee here present;
Leaders of the Alliance;
Municipal Manager of the Mogale City Local Municipality, Mr. Dan Mashitisho
Senior Management of Mogale City Local Municipality;
Business leaders;
Distinguished guests, friends and people of Mogale City.

We stated in our State of the City address earlier this year that we “remain unflinching in our commitment to the upliftment of our rural communities as stated at the beginning of our term of office.” We want to repeat that commitment today. We do so, Programme Director, because our constitution states that municipalities must structure and manage all their functions and processes in a manner that prioritises the basic needs of the community. We are determined to provide sustainable service delivery that puts equal premium on our urban as well as rural communities. We have been advised by the State President, Jacob Zuma that “people in the rural areas also have a right to electricity and water; flush toilets, roads, entertainment and sport centres; as well as better shopping centres like those in the cities.” The Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Shiceka, outlined his vision for the department around July 2009 and said, amongst other things, that we must focus on programmes that promote citizen engagement and participation. He cited the Thusong Centres as one of the areas that promote this engagement and participation.

Today, therefore, marks a milestone in our efforts to provide sustainable services to communities in rural areas through cooperation between ourselves as a municipality and our provincial government. This rural development effort is aimed at producing viable rural economies and sustainable livelihoods. Contrary to many assertions, ours is a government driven by the will of the people. The nine decades that drove the African National Congress to the respectable heights it occupies today were based on its steadfast commitment to listening to the wants and needs of the people. This is where the singular attention to the people our municipality and provincial government derives from. We do not just listen but we act upon the wishes of our people. We therefore wish to welcome the MEC and her entourage, the guests and all of you who have joined us as we bring government to the people. We trust that the community of Muldersdrift will use these facilities optimally and shall safeguard them because they are the property of the people.

I thank you.

04 December 2009

Address by the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane at the Business Achiever Awards Function hosted by the MCCI at the Centenary Hall, Civic Centre Mogale City.

 

End of year function address

Address by the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane at the Business Achiever Awards Function hosted by the MCCI at the Centenary Hall, Civic Centre Mogale City.

Programme Director,
Executive Mayor of the West Rand District Municipality, Ald. Faith Matshikiza
Speaker of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Noluthando Mangole
Members of the Mayoral Committee here present
Executive Mayors here present
Municipal Manager, Mr Dan Mashitisho
Senior Managers of the Mogale City Local Municipality
Staff members of Mogale City Local Municipality

This is a proud moment in the history of our municipality. Ever since 1994, the government led by the African National Congress has single-mindedly worked on establishing a working governance system that ensures rapid and seamless service delivery for the people of South Africa. The ANC identified long ago that local authorities would be the most critical of spheres of government in ensuring service delivery because it is closest to communities. This focus started with overhauling old and racially divided municipalities, combining or fragmenting others. Mogale City is a product of that overhaul and reorganisation. For the past decade Mogale City has been focused on creating a better revenue base for itself so that it is able to offer high quality services on a sustainable basis. We are now a plus R1 billion budget municipality and growing. We have also focused on perfecting our administrative systems to ensure that service delivery occurs in an environment that facilitates proper planning and implementation for decision-makers and full accountability to all stakeholders.

We believe that we have achieved these objectives. This was made possible by the passion and energy of the entire staff. We thank you all for your tireless effort and urge you to keep the momentum. We want to thank the councillors for keeping a close eye on things when executing their oversight role. This collaboration and cooperation between the political and administrative arms of the institution should be maintained and improved going forward. Our efforts have been rewarded with the unqualified report we received from the Auditor-General. We are part of 3% of municipalities that received a clean audit from the AG. We will work relentlessly to ensure the success of the CLEAN AUDIT BY 2014 Campaign which the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs launched, which means that we will stop at nothing to ensure that we adhere to municipal legislation when we perform our duties. Our municipality has also been hard at work at taking back the streets from unruly elements to law abiding communities. We have been doing so with limited resources that almost made it impossible to give full effect to our by-laws and regulations. We have acquired a new vehicle fleet to help our public safety officers to raise the bar in law enforcement. We unveil this fleet to pass a strong message to those serial law-breakers that their days are numbered.

We want to conclude on another positive note. Mogale City has been commended by other municipalities in a recent COGTA Assessment for being amongst the best in communication with communities. We want to share this important announcement with you today that the 2010 FIFA World Cup is upon us and we have demonstrated during the recent Confederations Cup that Mogale City is actually ready for the big event. Our city will not host any matches during the soccer spectacle, but we will certainly receive thousands of fans during the tournament. We are proud to announce that the five times winners of the World Cup, Brazil, will be based in Mogale City. We will also host the Australian national team as well as Germany’s management and technical team. These are crucial endorsements for the City of Human Origin which will put the spotlight on us as well as attract much-needed revenue. We want to encourage all staff members to continue the good effort of being Ambassadors of the Ultimate Fan City for 2010. As the profile and reputation of our city continues to grow, all of us need to protect and sustain it.

These are interesting times for the city. As this wonderful year draws to a close, we want to wish all those who will be taking long trips home to meet their loved ones to travel safely. Remember that we are also the custodians of the Arrive Alive Campaign. We want you to enjoy your holiday and return in one piece next year, with renewed energy so that we can continue to raise the name of this magnificent city together. We wish you a peaceful and happy festive season, and hope for a prosperous new year for you and your families as well as the municipality.

I thank you

Disability address

Address by the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane at the Business Achiever Awards Function hosted by the MCCI at the Centenary Hall, Civic Centre Mogale City.

Programme Director,
Speaker of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Noluthando Mangole
Members of the Mayoral Committee here present
Municipal Manager, Mr Dan Mashitisho
Senior Managers of the Mogale City Local Municipality
Leaders from various organisations in the Disability Rights Movement
Leaders of the tripartite alliance here present
Leaders of political parties
Leaders in business, the academic world and many sectors represented here
People of Mogale City

We gather here today to give focus to one of the most important issues that confront our world in current times. The modern world has gone through various phases of transformation in its two millennia of existence. It has seen the dreaded effects to its climate, it has seen wars between nations, wrote treaties to end conflicts. Humankind has seen the best inventions in technology, the car, the telephone, the computer and so forth. In all of these endeavours humans have not found in themselves the courage to lose discrimination whether by race or colour, religion or social status, physical height or weight, language and many more such trivialities. It is certainly this acknowledgement that brings us together today, to celebrate the strides we all are making to embrace those of us who have physical challenges that confront them daily. The world insists that we cannot live by old rules because we certainly are not primitive. If there is an iota of advancement that we have made as the human race by which we brag, then one of those things that should be measured is the universal access we give to all people, whether able bodied or not.

The issue of disability is not an issue of charity and pricking at the graciousness or guilt of the able bodied to make them demonstrate pity for the disabled. The disabled are not a charity case and would certainly not want to be regarded as such. It is for this reason that we as leaders in our communities are forever reminded by our State President Jacob Zuma to mainstream issues of the most vulnerable in our society, to act decisively and concretely in advancing the agenda of making a BETTER LIFE FOR ALL. This is not an empty slogan but should be a lived reality for all. The emphasis being that we do not do things to tick a box as compliance, neither should it be for the sake of charity. It is a reality that shall be conceived and driven together with the disabled, as one of their cries would say: NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US.

Programme Director, our democratic state led by the people’s movement, the African National Congress has over the past fifteen years produced a slew of legislative pieces that address in an aggressive way the issue of mainstreaming disability. The laws are too numerous to quote for our address today, but just as essential to highlight that the Mogale City Local Municipality has had to become alive to its own work, processes and systems insofar as they address the plight of the marginalised and vulnerable of our people within and outside the institution.

Internally, an Office on the Status of Disabled Persons was established and is working hard at making us respond to the needs of the disabled, some of the highlights being assisting the institution to procure Braille reading equipment for the blind for our libraries as well as influencing the design of our buildings to be in line with ergonomic needs of people with disabilities. It is our commitment that we will ensure that all our buildings will progressively have assistive devices that accord with our strategy for the disabled. Secondly, we concede that our uptake on the employment of people with disabilities does not give enough encouragement to those who observe disability issues. Again, we will need to look sharply at those issues that hinder the uptake so that we are able to give necessary impetus to this aspect.

We want to encourage communities to increase their role in raising awareness about issues of disability as well as to help government in combating discrimination against people with disabilities. Often the stigma against people with disabilities is fuelled by those amongst us who hide their children and siblings who have disabilities. We need to uproot the stigma from within, that is from inside our homes. Society will accept that which you are proud of and society will not look down upon what you do not despise. It is the cruel nature of society that we tend to acquire the bad from those who project the bad. When we display disgust for our own so shall others follow suit. It is our responsibility to safeguard ourselves against our own misdemeanours by striving to do good all the time. At this day and age, and as South Africans who have lived through centuries of discrimination, our own understanding of how vile and unwarranted discrimination against others can be, it should stand to reason that we should be leading the effort for giving universal access to people with disabilities.

Programme Director, this municipality wants to commit to working in concert with other government departments in ensuring that the rights of the disabled are not trampled upon. We want to commend the organisers of this event for the sterling work they are doing to project such a serious matter in the lives of those living with disability. We want to conclude by saying that the disability rights movement wants all of us to know that all the efforts at creating an environment that accommodates the needs of the disabled, is meant simply to ensure their independence as individuals. We will neither lag nor falter in the effort to ensure that the constitutional rights of the disabled are respected. May you enjoy celebrations of your International Day of the Disabled.

I thank you.

Opening Remarks of the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Koketso Calvin Seerane at the occasion of the Launch of the Muldersdrift Thusong Service Centre, Mogale City

Programme Director;
MEC for Infrastructure in Gauteng, Nonhlanhla Mazibuko;
Speaker of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Noluthando Mangole;
Members of the Mayoral Committee here present;
Leaders of the Alliance;
Municipal Manager of the Mogale City Local Municipality, Mr. Dan Mashitisho
Senior Management of Mogale City Local Municipality;
Business leaders;
Distinguished guests, friends and people of Mogale City.

We stated in our State of the City address earlier this year that we “remain unflinching in our commitment to the upliftment of our rural communities as stated at the beginning of our term of office.” We want to repeat that commitment today. We do so, Programme Director, because our constitution states that municipalities must structure and manage all their functions and processes in a manner that prioritises the basic needs of the community. We are determined to provide sustainable service delivery that puts equal premium on our urban as well as rural communities. We have been advised by the State President, Jacob Zuma that “people in the rural areas also have a right to electricity and water; flush toilets, roads, entertainment and sport centres; as well as better shopping centres like those in the cities.” The Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Shiceka, outlined his vision for the department around July 2009 and said, amongst other things, that we must focus on programmes that promote citizen engagement and participation. He cited the Thusong Centres as one of the areas that promote this engagement and participation.

Today, therefore, marks a milestone in our efforts to provide sustainable services to communities in rural areas through cooperation between ourselves as a municipality and our provincial government. This rural development effort is aimed at producing viable rural economies and sustainable livelihoods. Contrary to many assertions, ours is a government driven by the will of the people. The nine decades that drove the African National Congress to the respectable heights it occupies today were based on its steadfast commitment to listening to the wants and needs of the people. This is where the singular attention to the people our municipality and provincial government derives from. We do not just listen but we act upon the wishes of our people. We therefore wish to welcome the MEC and her entourage, the guests and all of you who have joined us as we bring government to the people. We trust that the community of Muldersdrift will use these facilities optimally and shall safeguard them because they are the property of the people.

I thank you.

10 November 2009 Provincial IGR conference

10 November 2009

Welcoming Address by the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane on the occasion of the Intergovernmental Relations Conference held at the Misty Hills Conference Centre, Muldersdrift Mogale City.

Premier of the Gauteng Province, Nomvula Mokonyane
Members of the Executive Committee of the Gauteng Provincial Government
Members of the Provincial Legislature
Mayors of different municipalities
Traditional leaders
Speakers of various municipalities
Chief Whips of various municipalities
Municipal Managers
Senior managers in local government
Senior managers in both national and provincial departments
IGR Practitioners from local, provincial and national government
Members of the media;
Distinguished guests, friends, and comrades;

In a booklet on intergovernmental relations distributed by the DPLG, now COGTA, we find a telling quote by the Nobel Laureate, Chief Albert Luthuli, where he says, “The essence of development along your own lines is to have the right to develop and the right to determine how you develop.”

We gather here today to refine our approach to how the three spheres of government in the Gauteng Province deliver on the mandate of creating a better life for all, fully conscious of the need of the citizens of the province to make inputs to the developmental trajectory we will adopt henceforth. We lead governments not by imposition but by the conscious endorsement of a people who have needs and wants that they feel confident can be addressed by a government that listens and works in concert with them. The mandate and injunction say that WORKING TOGETHER WE CAN DO MORE. We are required to give effective truth to the fact that spheres of government cannot work in isolation of each other, for in the end if they do so, then they will have been the first to throw stones at the noble injunction that tells us that when we work together we can do more.

Programme Director, this mandate is not about taking the shine of the star from anyone. We are not in competition with each other and as such none of our interests are in the subordination of the others’. The goal remains one. It is about a deliberate effort to ensure that we can accelerate service delivery to our people in a spirit of cooperation and agreement. We can only make our people’s lives better if we eliminate uncertainties and bottlenecks that come, more often and necessarily so, with proper political, administrative and financial issues that accompany service delivery. Often these necessary, and we may add vital things – which perhaps give a bad name to bureaucracy- create specific problems of indecision, inaction as well as slow the pace of service delivery to the detriment of delivering to our people. These things then create tensions between the people and their government, which we all can agree is not what we desire to do. Mogale City can demonstrate in many areas how we have managed to capture the essence of intergovernmental relations message through, for example, the mixed-use Chief Mogale Development which will see effective service delivery on the human settlement front wherein all spheres of government collaborate to ensure that both the quantity and quality of service delivery is up to scratch. We are willing to learn from best practice around the province so that we can enhance our local development programme.

We hope that this gathering will provide the necessary impetus to the eradication of silos, the promotion of coordination and effective service delivery for all. We hope that there will be outcomes that are tangible and measurable that will be arrived at by end of a conference.

For the full two days that you shall spend at this venue, we wish that you can enjoy the warmth and hospitality of the City of Human Origin. Therefore, on behalf of the people of Mogale City, we extend a hand in welcome and wish you very fruitful deliberations.

I thank you.

11 November 2009 iLGM Gala Dinner Address

11 November 2009

Address by the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane at the Business Achiever Awards Function hosted by the MCCI at the Centenary Hall, Civic Centre Mogale City.

Programme Director
President of the iLGM, Ms. Dudu Maseko
Chairperson of the iLGM Gauteng, Mr. Vusi Mavuso
Mayors of various municipalities
Traditional leaders
Speakers of various municipalities
Leaders of political parties
Senior managers in local, provincial and national government departments
Leaders of academic institutions and business here present
Distinguished guests, friends, and comrades

This morning we kick-started an important gathering that seeks to evolve new ways of doing things in the local government sphere. We gather here this evening to cement the relationships we created and to ensure that the conference delivers fruitful results for all of us going forward. This conference occurs against the backdrop of a recessionary economic situation that we concede presents resource constraints on municipalities. It occurs amidst service delivery protests all over the country. It therefore presents leadership challenges for all, both for the political and administrative leadership of municipalities. The recent COGTA assessment of the state of local government laid stress on the aspect of having credible leadership spearheading true socio-economic transformation for the benefit of all our people in this critical sphere of government. No municipality can function when the legitimacy of its political leadership is under question. Therefore, we are required to ensure the “effectiveness, capability and integrity of the local political council leadership.”

It has become apparent to all of us that the votes that our people give to political parties shall never be a blank cheque by which those who govern can make of them as they please. It means that as our democracy matures, our people’s vigilance will also increase and they will get more assertive about the things they want and need. This means that our state of readiness to respond to their demands should also be above reproach. The two areas we must navigate when these demands confront us are that our people’s needs shall never match the resources we will have whether there is a recession or not. It is the nature of economics that resources are forever limited whereas community needs rise each passing day. Also, the majority of municipalities are involved in somewhat cumbersome efforts of addressing the legacy of skewed development of our apartheid past. This is not something that the majority of our people will readily understand because of the conditions of deprivation that they live under.

Poverty shall remain the greatest threat to our democracy. It questions what abundance is or even its longevity when there are vast pockets of poverty in our midst. In the academic world, there are questions we can pose and rationalise with for hours on end. We can ask what the business of an awakened and kind-hearted national is: are we involved in poverty eradication or poverty alleviation? For poor people, there is no such luxury. Poor people are pitted against the terror of hunger and want at the crack of every dawn, in broad daylight and when the sun has set. It is sad because most would prefer death than deal with the daily challenges of lack of livelihood. The next challenge is that enemies of progress remain ready to exploit the needs and wants of our people to advance their selfish agendas. This is something we cannot avoid since for every interest, good or bad, there shall always be a contending interest. Perhaps the advantage of the current system is that the programme we drive for a united, non-racist, non-sexist, peaceful and prosperous South Africa is not imposed. It is a programme born of and endorsed by the majority of our people. All it requires is that we should increase the opportunity for accounting to and engagement with as well as regular assessment by our people. We should ensure that our local democracy is enhanced to minimise discontent and to deny space to charlatans that pretend to have the best interests of our people at heart.

In terms of provision of administrative leadership, we should all build organisational capacity that embraces both closer linkages and cooperation between administration and politicians as well as embody the Batho Pele culture. We therefore agree with the message and counsel of the Deputy Minister, Cde Yunus Carrim when he encouraged us to eliminate unnecessary contest between politics and administration and find synergies for effective service delivery. The new cadre we need in the local government sphere is one who lives and breathes putting the people first. We need to be actively empathetic and responsive to the plight of our people as we serve them in our institutions for as long as these institutions are established and run in their name. For in the end, it would be an act of utter betrayal when we abandon the people as soon as we reach the comfort of our offices With these few words, we wish to welcome you once again to the City of Human Origin. We hope that you can feel that we put you first as visitors to this warm city. We trust that you will find time to return to our city for business and leisure in the not too distant future.

I thank you

03 October 2009 Safety speech

Address by the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane on the occasion of the Gauteng Community Safety Imbizo held Kagiso Sports Complex, Mogale City.

Programme Director,
MEC Khabisi Masonkutu
Executive Mayor of the West Rand District Municipality, Ald. Faith Matshikizav Speaker of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Noluthando Mangole
Honourable councilors
Leaders of the Alliance
Members of the media
Senior managers of different government departments and business,
People of Mogale City.

Just a few days ago, the State President Jacob Zuma said that our crime-fighting agencies must step up their act against criminals, without fear or favour. Most of all, without any fear. The President said that we cannot fight crime by kissing it. The President had said it before, “We are sending a clear message to criminals that improved policing will be a critical part of our fight against crime. That is why we changed the name from the Department of Safety and Security to the Police Department. No fancy words, just plain policing to protect our people and their properties from crime.”

All our efforts are directed at preventing, combating and effective investigation of crime. These efforts are not isolated from the integrated approach of involving as many government departments and spheres of government as possible in this fight against crime. Municipalities, as the closest sphere of government to our people, have a critical role to play in ensuring that there is effective policing that ultimately results in safer communities. Mogale City, like many of our cities nationally, experiences incidents of drunken driving, use of un-roadworthy vehicles on our roads and serial speedsters that endanger the lives of our children. Our public safety unit recently made a pledge to, not only give the best of service to our community but to make certain that our streets are given back to law-abiding residents. Our municipal court will deal with all those who break our by-laws.

We are active participants in the Social Justice Forum in which we work with the SAPS, Correctional Services, the Department of Justice and the West Rand District Municipality. We also work closely with the Mogale City Chamber of Commerce and Industry in fighting crime in the CBD. Together with the province, we have also joined trailblazers through establishment of links with the Environment department as well as the Mining Department in combating environmental crimes. All of these efforts reflect the municipality’s commitment to and alignment of its service delivery programme to the provincial priorities. These efforts cannot achieve any results if they do not enjoy the full support of communities together with whom we formulate them. We have an active corps of community policing forums around the city. The basis of which is that we cannot do things as a municipality without the direct involvement of the people. Any government initiative that does not enjoy the support of the people will remain ineffectual and hollow, explaining the fact that it is not designed with and for the needs of the people.

We want to encourage you, the residents of our city, to keep engaging law enforcement agencies in the consistent and commendable manner in which you have for these past years. We are encouraged that the streets of our city are patrolled at night and there is an encouraging reduction of violent crime in our streets. When young people choose to stay at home after nine or choose to get picked up by friends with vehicles around those times, then we know as parents that there is something right in the offing out there. The police and our brave volunteer patrollers are in charge. However, this all goes back to our families and our households. We need to take back our lives from criminals. We are not in a war zone, completely dependent on the police to walk us from our houses to our neighbours. We cannot praise our children for being daring than we were when they bring television sets, videos, clothes, cell phones, vehicles, and other things home when we know that they do not have an income by which they are able to purchase these things. Life as a miracle and a mystery that it is might surprise you. You might find that the cell phone has been taken from a colleague of yours, a fellow church member, or your favourite neighbour who, if things went far worse, will need to be buried the following week? Your child might have taken a life for a R250 gadget. Your child will have brought you misery and pain, bad looks from neighbours and worse. We need to destroy crime by denying it any space and comfort in our households first. Safer communities shall be initiated by the government but shall and should be sustained by the people.

Our municipality is hard at work at building a caring society. We encourage you to live by the injunction of the ruling ANC when it says: WORKING TOGETHER WE CAN DO MORE.

I thank you

15 October 2009 Business excellence awards

Address by the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane at the Business Achiever Awards Function hosted by the MCCI at the Centenary Hall, Civic Centre Mogale City.

Programme Director,
Speaker of the Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Noluthando Mangole
Members of the Mayoral Committee
Councillors and leaders of political parties here present
President of the Mogale Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. John Olivier
Leaders of business and government departments;
Honourable guests and people of Mogale City.

We gather here today to witness the recognition of Mogale City’s top business achievers by their peers. It is a special moment in the annual calendar of the MCCI as much as it is for the municipality as a whole. It is the pinnacle of every entrepreneur’s life to have their business venture getting honours from their neighbours. It means that you have a firmer foundation upon which you can rise to conquer the region, the province and the nation. In a nutshell, the world becomes your oyster.

As entrepreneurs, you set about on a journey to create wealth for yourselves and your families. That is born out of great ideas that saw the likes of Bill Gates, Richard Branson, our Richard Maponya and Patrice Motsepe amongst others live fulfilling lives because they dared to dream. In Mogale City we have sterling examples of this entrepreneurial streak that has made this city to be counted amongst the best in the province, and the country. However, today is for individual pace setters. It is about courage and endurance, a great deal of financial and emotional investment. It is all about the risk takers whose peers today feel that they have shown their mettle and are role models that young entrepreneurs must emulate.

We cannot acknowledge enough the fact that we are living in difficult times. Economic pundits have already told us that the world recession will ease up in the next months. In the developing countries, the recovery will take longer. What we honour through this gathering is the grit with which our own business people withstood the difficult period of this economic crisis. We know by now that the undeclared intention of any entrepreneurial venture is to do public good, just like government works for the public good. The creation of jobs means more families have a steady income that can sustain them. This intention is now tested by the new economic climate that we live under. In minimising costs to survive the crisis what should our businesses do? This is a fundamental question that preoccupies business as it does government.

We continue to emphasize the fact that the response to the recession does not mean that the agenda all South Africans endorsed in 1994 should be abandoned to satisfy short-term objectives. We have no truck with businesses seeking to maximise their profits by doing those special things that help them remain on a sustainable keel. All of us do not query the need for that sustainability to be founded on the basic national programme of economic redress, transformation and diversity of ownership and leadership of our businesses. The new entrepreneur that inherits the business environment that these trailblazers have charted, is the one that will concede that the fundamentals of business management remain universal and the same, but business leadership is forever redefined by the ever-changing economic landscape.

Like the MCCI has on several occasions alluded, Mogale City and our sister municipalities in the West Rand district are on the verge of establishing one city. This reconfiguration means that we can work together as political leaders in advancing the transformation agenda of the region. This also creates greater certainty for businesses in the district, to be able to create new opportunities and niches for themselves. Therefore those leaders we recognise today are called upon to take the lead in making this forward movement of our region to be meaningful. It must be said years from now, that the great economy of that new city that we shall have created was built by the great minds of the City of Human Origin. We promise far greater collaboration between the municipality and business on this noble endeavour. Greatness defines us, so let us take the lead.

We congratulate all the achievers. We encourage those who did not make the cut this year not to despair but to stick around because their chance will also come. In the end, heroes shall remain heroes whether they are sung or unsung.

I thank you

29 September 2009 Misty Hills

Address by the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane at the occasion of the launch of new facilities of the Misty Hills Country Hotel, Conference Centre & Spa, Muldersdrift Mogale City

Programme Director,
Councilors and leaders of different political parties,
Senior Managers of Mogale City Local Municipality,
Leaders of business and government departments,
Honourable guests and people of Mogale City.

We gather here today to give credence to the fact that perseverance is indeed the mother of success. One of the founding pillars of this reorganised Mogale City is the bravery we strive to instil on all residents of our city. The bravery of Chief Mogale Wa Mogale is legendary. There is testimony of it in what brings us together today. It is as if the management of this establishment had made peace with the advice of Mark Twain when he says, “Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbour. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” These are tough times we live under. The economic situation is unpleasant and devouring for many of our people. Yet there are opportunities for venturesome entrepreneurs and daring business people. The FIFA 2010 World Cup is here.

When we opened the Tourism Summit at the second quarter of this year, we did bring to the attention of those gathered that the 2006 World Cup generated billions of Euros for the Germans, with merchandise valued at €2 billion being sold to fans at the event. That was 25% more than the 2002 games. This was in exclusion of the rights to marketing, television and so forth. It is a multi-billion rand event that requires us to prime ourselves appropriately so that we can make hay when the sun starts shining. We tested our capability to act as a feeder city for host cities of the 2010 World Cup through establishment of a transport hub for the recent Confederations Cup. For example, we got rave television reviews for those tourism operators of our city who hosted fans during this precursor for great things next year.

We will have 32 different countries on our shores in a bedazzling spectacle of 64 football matches. Mogale City is situated in the middle of four 2010 match venues. These are Soccer City as well as Ellis Park World of Sport in Johannesburg; Royal Bafokeng Stadium in Rustenburg and Loftus Versfeld in Tshwane. These four venues will host more than seventy percent of all matches. Each venue can be accessed via road transport in approximately thirty minutes from Mogale City. When we say that the city boasts an abundance of five star accommodation establishments that proved their mettle during the recent Confederations Cup 2009, we count Misty Hills amongst these venues. Lanseria International Airport, which is fifteen minutes away from us, provides an alternative form of travel that removes visitors from the hustle and bustle of other airports. Therefore the municipality, having made the determination that this non-hosting city is best placed to offer a memorable experience for tourists during the 2010 Football spectacle, presents Mogale City as the Ultimate Fan City for 2010.

Misty Hills defines what we had said. It is appropriately positioned to harvest from the good foundation we established during the Confederations Cup. More than anything, our interest as a municipality lies with the creation of employment opportunities and upliftment of the local economy. The things we do must be sustainable. We therefore trust that the management of this establishment have dared to dream and have explored and will put our city on the world map. At the appropriate time, the municipality will be making an important FIFA 2010 World Cup announcement that will make many cities and tour operators envious of the strides we have been making regarding the soccer spectacle. So keep your eyes peeled, ears wide open and as a business person grab the opportunities that will follow that announcement. We want to wish the owners and management of Misty Hills all the progress they deserve for the hard work they put into this project. We want to leave you with a challenge. Alan Gregg says, “The human race has had long experience and a fine tradition in surviving adversity. But we now face a task for which we have little experience, the task of surviving prosperity.”

Are you ready to survive prosperity?

I thank you

Address by the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane at the Business Achiever Awards Function hosted by the MCCI at the Centenary Hall, Civic Centre Mogale City.

Programme Director,
Speaker of the Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Noluthando Mangole
Members of the Mayoral Committee
Councillors and leaders of political parties here present
President of the Mogale Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Mr. John Olivier
Leaders of business and government departments;
Honourable guests and people of Mogale City.

We gather here today to witness the recognition of Mogale City’s top business achievers by their peers. It is a special moment in the annual calendar of the MCCI as much as it is for the municipality as a whole. It is the pinnacle of every entrepreneur’s life to have their business venture getting honours from their neighbours. It means that you have a firmer foundation upon which you can rise to conquer the region, the province and the nation. In a nutshell, the world becomes your oyster.

As entrepreneurs, you set about on a journey to create wealth for yourselves and your families. That is born out of great ideas that saw the likes of Bill Gates, Richard Branson, our Richard Maponya and Patrice Motsepe amongst others live fulfilling lives because they dared to dream. In Mogale City we have sterling examples of this entrepreneurial streak that has made this city to be counted amongst the best in the province, and the country. However, today is for individual pace setters. It is about courage and endurance, a great deal of financial and emotional investment. It is all about the risk takers whose peers today feel that they have shown their mettle and are role models that young entrepreneurs must emulate.

We cannot acknowledge enough the fact that we are living in difficult times. Economic pundits have already told us that the world recession will ease up in the next months. In the developing countries, the recovery will take longer. What we honour through this gathering is the grit with which our own business people withstood the difficult period of this economic crisis. We know by now that the undeclared intention of any entrepreneurial venture is to do public good, just like government works for the public good. The creation of jobs means more families have a steady income that can sustain them. This intention is now tested by the new economic climate that we live under. In minimising costs to survive the crisis what should our businesses do? This is a fundamental question that preoccupies business as it does government.

We continue to emphasize the fact that the response to the recession does not mean that the agenda all South Africans endorsed in 1994 should be abandoned to satisfy short-term objectives. We have no truck with businesses seeking to maximise their profits by doing those special things that help them remain on a sustainable keel. All of us do not query the need for that sustainability to be founded on the basic national programme of economic redress, transformation and diversity of ownership and leadership of our businesses. The new entrepreneur that inherits the business environment that these trailblazers have charted, is the one that will concede that the fundamentals of business management remain universal and the same, but business leadership is forever redefined by the ever-changing economic landscape.

Like the MCCI has on several occasions alluded, Mogale City and our sister municipalities in the West Rand district are on the verge of establishing one city. This reconfiguration means that we can work together as political leaders in advancing the transformation agenda of the region. This also creates greater certainty for businesses in the district, to be able to create new opportunities and niches for themselves. Therefore those leaders we recognise today are called upon to take the lead in making this forward movement of our region to be meaningful. It must be said years from now, that the great economy of that new city that we shall have created was built by the great minds of the City of Human Origin. We promise far greater collaboration between the municipality and business on this noble endeavour. Greatness defines us, so let us take the lead.

We congratulate all the achievers. We encourage those who did not make the cut this year not to despair but to stick around because their chance will also come. In the end, heroes shall remain heroes whether they are sung or unsung.

I thank you

29 August 2009 Sam Oliphant Eulogy

Eulogy delivered by the Honourable Executive Mayor, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane at the funeral of ANC Ward Councillor Sam Oliphant held at the Kagiso Extension 12 Community Hall.

Programme Director;
Speaker of the Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Noluthando Mangole;
Members of the Mayoral Committee;
Senior Managers of the Mogale City Local Municipality;
Leaders of the ANC Alliance in the West Rand and Provincially;
Honourable councillors and managers of various municipalities and government departments;
Leaders of other political parties;
Leaders of the non-governmental and business sector;
Members of the community, and those who travelled from various places to join us during this solemn occasion.

Not too long ago we were called upon to assemble at the Kagiso Community Hall to lay to rest the Chief Whip of the Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Lashman Baloyi. It was a sad and touching moment. Not only was it signalling a departure of a friend and a comrade, it was also a signal of the loss of a leader of our community. The African National Congress again is called to gather at this hall to pay respects to one of its own, another leader of our community. Like the late Lashman Baloyi, Cde Sam Oliphant also cut his political teeth in the labour movement. He went on to serve in various structures of the movement until he met his untimely death. Like a soldier, he died with his boots on. He joins the ranks of Joe Gqabi, Joe Slovo, Chris Hani, Walter Sisulu and others who look from their heady heights at the good work that their son and comrade has done for his people.

The city wants to thank the Oliphant family, relatives and friends of our late comrade for the gift that you had brought to our community. Many might have wished for him to do more for the family, when the pressing needs of the communities preoccupied him all the time. It is our curse and our blessing as leaders of our people that there more we work for our people, the less we give time to the closest amongst us, which are our families. We hope it will comfort the family that in this time of sorrow, the good work that Cde Sam Oliphant did for his people shall stand as a lasting consolation for you to cling to. Not everyone who benefited from the good work that he did will be brave enough to say that their circumstances have changed for the better because of the work of our late comrade and the glorious movement of the people that he was a member of, the African National Congress. Death and time are always co-conspirators. It is always when we least expect that people who are sick and in recovery will always leave us. It always does not seem to matter that they leave us at times that we need them the most.

Cde Oliphant leaves us during very trying times. It is those times when many who seek glory and fortune come forward to take advantage of the genuine grievances and struggles of our people and offer themselves as messiahs. They seek to elevate themselves to positions of leadership using lies and deceit to advance themselves. They disorganise, sabotage and subvert programmes of the government led by their popular movement, the ANC. When they engineer these squabbles that delay service delivery to our people, they shout out loud that they are doing so for the good of the ANC. How can you subvert, sabotage and undermine programmes of the movement you love and declare at the same time that you are doing such for its own good? The streets of our city will see much more of these gimmicks. Our people will march onto houses of comrades, ward offices, the town hall and everywhere bearing grievances written for them by those who want to see instability and disorder in this peaceful city of ours. They will see the new voices and the new faces of these messiahs. They are the ones who must answer the question, where were they when Cde Oliphant was fighting employers on behalf of his fellow colleagues at Pick and Pay? When the leaders like Cde Oliphant were persecuted and prosecuted; others were escaping to exile, none of today’s voices were to be found.

We are led by a movement that has taught us to accept the will of the people. Everything we do, we do for the people and never against the will of the people. We have been working for this organisation since our youth, but at no stage did we come across a community programme that says that communities must fight the ANC. Maybe it is the fact that freedom comes differently to all of us, as a television advert asks: Are you free or are you dom? Programme Director, we want to say to the Oliphant family that this is indeed a sad moment for all of us. We cannot describe your pain and words will not fulfil you at this hour. We however wish to say that it shall always be as the Lord and our ancestors have decreed that all of us shall in one way or the other, at one point or another leave this world. We are proud that our comrade did not live his life in vain, many others will not live to make the kind of difference that he has made for his community and our city. Therefore we send our heartfelt condolences to all of you. We hope you will find the strength to move on at some point.

We will jealously defend the work of Cde Oliphant and the ANC with all at our disposal until there is a better life for all. We will work in our city without let or hindrance for the noble goals of establishing a non-sexist, non-racist, peaceful and prosperous South Africa. He dedicated his life to that and so we promise that whatever he wished for, the ANC shall achieve. May his soul rest in peace.

Amandla!

11 September 2009 Premier's Gala Dinner

Address of the Honourable Executive Mayor of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Koketso Calvin Seerane at the Premier’s Gala Dinner held at Usambara Conference Centre, Honingklip, Mogale City.

Programme Director;
Premier of Gauteng, Nomvula Mokonyane;
Executive Mayor of the West Rand District, Ald. Faith Matshikiza;
Speaker of Mogale City Local Municipality, Cllr Noluthando Mangole;
Executive Mayor of Randfontein Local Municipality, Cllr Zeph Mhlongo;
Executive Mayor of Westonaria Local Municipality, Cllr Maserame Khumalo;
Executive Mayor of Merafong Local Municipality, Cllr Mantsho Mathikge;
Members of Mayoral Committees across the district;
Justice Edwin Molatlhegi;
Leaders of the Alliance;
Municipal Manager of the Mogale City Local Municipality, Mr. Dan Mashitisho
Senior Management of municipalities across the district;
Business leaders;
Distinguished guests, friends and people of Mogale City.

We gather here today to set privilege on its head and assert our pride in wishing a daughter of Mogale City, Nomvula Mokonyane, a successful term as Premier of Gauteng. We pause right at the outset to reflect on the significance of the event to our city. We will be accused of everything now, even the romanticisation of the past from which we all come. Be that as it may, we wish to venture into that dangerous terrain for a short while. Programme Director, what brings us together today is not just the fact that one of us has been elevated to lead the province. We should constantly remind ourselves that this is the economic hub of the country. The economic muscle of the province is greater than that of many African countries, and its capital city has a budget envied by many developing countries. Gauteng is the political seat of the Pan African Parliament. Therefore this elevation of our leader is a continental affirmation that Mogale City has produced.

For centuries the struggles of humankind against elements of nature, and mostly against injustices they mete out to each other has always been told from the standpoint of the great perpetrators of injustice. Men have occupied centre stage in articulating the response on the problems they created for the world. More brave women have stood up for what they believed in. These women have endured torture and humiliation, with babies on their backs they soldiered on. When many chose the cold comfort of a school, the disempowering status of being a law-abiding citizen in a country built on no moral law at all, it is women like Nomvula Mokonyane who eschewed comfort to confront the injustices that challenged them as women and as an oppressed society. Often when we hear her speak of the torture she endured in apartheid detention cells, we wonder how many men were driving the Apartheid economy when she was being tortured. We wonder what they were thinking back then. When we speak of the bravery of Chief Mogale, we see it embodied in the likes of our Premier. She can take pride of place amongst Lilian Ngoyi, Helen Joseph, Sophie Williams and others as the women famously known as “the women who started all the trouble.”

This resilience of our comrade means that we are stubborn in our own commitment to giving a better life for our people. We stand in line with the eight million of our people in the province who look up to you, Premier Mokonyane, for guidance and strength. But we go beyond that. Ours is a direct and open commitment to give wholehearted support to you during this term of office to ensure that those things we promise in the Manifesto of the ANC are realised. We are the CITY OF HUMAN ORIGIN. We are particularly proud that you ascend to the highest office in the province after the reimaging programme of the Gauteng Province. We want to state that we are proud that when the province says, “It starts here,” this actually means that everything starts koMogale City. If any of us were prophets, we could have foreseen when the province announced this new pay-off line that the next Premier of the province would come from the city where everything starts. We are working very hard to ensure that the city is able to receive the goodwill and possibilities that the province has thrown our way, through the creation of opportunities for all our people.

Premier, you will end the first year of your term when the greatest sporting spectacle in the world will be hosted in this country. You will probably kick the ball at the final if not blow the whistle during the opening game. However and whichever way the FIFA 2010 World Cup is organised, what it means for us is that we are THE ULTIMATE FAN CITY FOR 2010. We have already demonstrated our readiness to respond to the tourism demand during the Confederations Cup. We hope you will find time in your busy schedule to help us remind the world that we are the ultimate fan city for that world showpiece. Programme Director, we are not going to lay out a wish list for the Premier because we are afraid that we will push her away. In fact, the problem is that things will always be the other way round. The more the list with Cde Mokonyane, the more you must report. The nickname “Mama Action” and the latest one, “Premier Mashesha” did not come because she walks fast. She works hard. We too promise equal energy and passion to build a better for all our people.

On behalf of the people of Mogale City, we would like to wish you and your cabinet all the success in your endeavours.

I thank you.

2009/2010 Budget Speech

009/2010 Budget Speech presented by the Honourable Executive Mayor, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane of the Mogale City Local Municipality at the Council Chambers, Krugersdorp Civic Centre, Mogale City.

Madam Speaker, Cllr. Noluthando Mangole;
Executive Mayor of the WRDM, Ald. Faith Matshikiza;
Acting Chief Whip of Council, Cllr. Sipho Dube;
Members of the Mayoral Committee here present;
Honourable Councillors of Mogale City;
Municipal Manager of the Mogale City Local Municipality, Mr. Dan Mashitisho
Leaders of the Alliance;
Business leaders;
Senior management and staff of Mogale City Local Municipality;
Members of the media;
Distinguished guests, friends, and comrades;
People of Mogale City;

When former State President and icon of our struggle, Nelson Mandela took office in 1994, he knew what his brief was and openly declared that, “The task at hand will not be easy. But you have mandated us to change South Africa from a country in which the majority with little hope, to one in which they can live and work with dignity, with a sense of self-esteem and confidence in the future.”

Madam Speaker, we wish to begin with a solemn declaration that the work we are doing today is an unremitting pledge we made that we will honour the late Chief Whip of Council, Cde. Lashman Baloyi, through our actions. It is in step with the vow Nelson Mandela made way back in 1994.

Last month was a remarkable period for Mogale City. We began the month with Theo Kgosinkwe scooping the SAMA Award for Best Afro Pop Album. That was followed closely by the elevation of our sister and comrade, Nomvula Mokonyane to the position of Premier of Gauteng. We saw one of our own young women councilors, Peace Mabe, assuming permanent representation of the Gauteng Province at the National Council of Provinces.

We also need to take a moment to congratulate all the political parties for making our 2009 General Election peaceful, free and fair. We congratulate the African National Congress for receiving an unequivocal and overwhelming endorsement from the electorate to continue to run the country. We also want to congratulate all parties that managed representation in all the legislatures.

It would be totally amiss of us not to congratulate the State President, Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma for ascending to the highest office in the land after long trials and tribulations. We want to affirm our position as a municipality that we will work closely and cooperatively with the new administration.

Madam Speaker, we are acutely aware that we gather here today against the backdrop of a global financial crisis that has sent the world economy into a tailspin. Brendan Boyle, a journalist with the Sunday Times, recently wrote that:

“We’re in a dreadful mess, the magnitude of which is driven home each day by new record lows for the major stock markets, new record highs for unemployment and global business going backward as factories close…

Whatever its origin, the crash is no way the fault of the developing world, but the poor in the emerging markets are among its hardest-hit victims.”

Using an extrapolation from a report by the Asian Development Bank, Boyle indicates that the Bank estimates that $50 trillion has been lost through the global meltdown. This is estimated at R75 000 of annual income of every one of us in the world. We agree with Boyle that the truth of the matter is that poor people do not have R75 000 to lose per annum, otherwise they would not be poor people. This study brings two economic realities into sharp focus even for the most conservative free marketers amongst us:

  1. old models that sustained the world prior to the global economic meltdown cease to hold monopoly on wisdom over what is good for the world economy as long as wealth remains concentrated in a few countries whilst the rest of the world gets by on crumbs – even when there are not enough crumbs to get by as they are wiped out by the reckless behavior of rich nations;
  2. secondly, the reality for poor people is forever at odds with the upward or downward curves thrown up by economic pundits; economic meltdowns and upswings nor whether we are technically in a recession or not does not answer the question of the poor concretely, which is, what is it in the economic illustration that makes my life better today than yesterday?

Madam Speaker we are confronted by food prices spiraling out of control on a daily basis with dire consequences for all, especially the poor. Fuel prices are up, down and up again, forcing input costs across the economy to go up relentlessly – again with dire consequences for working people and the poor as thousands of jobs are put on the line. Many firms are trying to mitigate these harsh conditions through the introduction of job-sharing, shorter working weeks and so on – again with dire consequences on household incomes.

The Deputy Minister of Transport, Jeremy Cronin advises that “In the global meltdown, our state is already actively coordinating defensive measures. But we cannot chug along with an infrastructure programme and defensive measures, waiting for the next commodity boom that could be a decade away. We have to ensure public spending begins to transform systemic faults.

None of this means [that] we should abolish markets. To debunk the idyll of a “free” market is not to call for the abolition of the market mechanism. Markets have allocative capacity to respond dynamically to market signals better than a Soviet-era planning entity. But market demand is not the same as social need. In our marketplace, half the population is too poor to signal anything.”

Madam Speaker, on a lighter note, we just wish to note that at the beginning of the global economic meltdown the best selling book worldwide was Das Kapital by Karl Marx. Secondly, current global economic recovery plans depend to a great extent on how much project finance the communist People’s Republic of China will dole out to save the world. Are we being told that capitalism has failed the world and communism is now king?

Madam Speaker our intention is not to diagnose the problems of the poor beyond recognition. The rich can temporarily borrow the robe of poverty and tell us that they are a few million rands poorer this year. They can still survive and live happily ever after. For the poor, poverty is the state of nature that assails them daily from all quarters. It is for this reason that we want to put our situation into proper perspective as we march forward in creating a better life for all. We are required to take decisive, not frenzied but measured yet imaginative steps to traverse what is poised to be our most challenging period since the transitional local government. We are commanded by history to rise to the occasion.

We are also advised by the Treasurer-General of the ruling African National Congress, Matthews Phosa that, “In a democracy as young as ours, and in such challenging global circumstances as we have, we can’t afford cheap politics that threaten to fracture our nation.”

Our developmental local government approach will prove something of a panacea for us going forward, because it demands that we should not be shy to intervene in the city’s productive economy through plans, partnerships, reforms and strategies that bolster employment creation, investment attraction and retention and also ensure access to quality basic services across the board on a sustainable basis. To achieve these in the current global recession environment, we need to:

  • vigorously implement our business unusual approach in a manner in which it would promote opportunities to our people and encourage innovative ways of delivering services by our staff
  • focus on a developmental model based on our strategic vision and priorities with an increased emphasis on what needs to be done
  • make use of greater efficiencies and improvements to maintain service delivery standards
  • engage the local business chamber and the Economic Advisory Council to promote the local economic development
  • strengthen the partnership with community-based and non-governmental organisations in providing a safety net for our vulnerable communities including the prudent use of our Grants-in-Aid programme

Madam Speaker, this is the principled approach on which the 2009/10 budget and IDP were developed.

The budget we present today is informed by our political priorities as outlined in the IDP 2007-2011. It is also based on the valuable inputs that we received when the draft budget and IDP went through a vigorous statutory public participation process that took place in November 2008 as well as in April and May this year.

One of the first areas we want to improve on in this budget is the issue of local economic development through local procurement as reported in our State of the City early this year. I would like to report that in our quest to empower local businesses the municipality has since 2006 spent over R100 million on the procurement of goods and services locally.

In order to improve further on the empowerment of local business, the municipality will embark on a strategic local procurement reform programme which is underpinned by the following:

  1. The introduction of a 1% social corporate responsibility contribution levy for non-Mogale City-based service providers. This would assist greatly in the various local development initiatives including capacitation of local service providers.
  2. Local procurement of services and products that support run-of-the-mill activities of the municipality. That means that all departments shall henceforth buy stationery, refreshments and catering, marketing material and so on locally except in special cases that could be justified. We want to advise our local businesses that the vast expenditure of our procurement budget goes to services and products that we purchase for less than R200 000. It is these opportunities that our local businesses must target.
  3. Investigation and implementation of innovative ways to ensure that our procurement processes encourage strategic linkages between and sub-contracting of our local businesses and non-Mogale City businesses that vie for any of our tenders. These businesses must also ensure that they transfer skills to our local people.
  4. The promotion of the expanded public work’s programme approach to ensure maximum labour absorption in our projects
  5. Targeted development programmes for skilling and mentorship including the CIDB programmes for emerging construction companies.
  6. The migration from the preferential procurement policy framework to the National Framework of Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) once it is approved by national treasury and we want to be the first implementers of the new framework.
  7. Vigorous registration of vendors on our supplier database to improve on reporting on procurement related matters.
  8. Promotion of intra trading amongst our local businesses,
  9. The ring-fencing of approximately R 40 million of the capital budget for infrastructure development services and a least 30% of other departments’ capital budget allocations for local procurement purposes.

The Bid Evaluation and Adjudication Committees must ensure that they give practical and measurable effect to this pronouncement and this will be factored into and monitored through the performance management system of the municipality.

We have listened to the numerous community concerns regarding the state of basic infrastructure in the city, especially on road maintenance and streetlights. To address the concerns, we have adopted a new approach that seeks to ensure proper maintenance of our infrastructure in established areas whilst at the same time vigorously addressing the backlog in the disadvantaged areas.

The 2009/10 budget being tabled was compiled with a greater emphasis on investment in our Infrastructure Network. It is intended to significantly improve service delivery to our communities through focused attention on adequately maintaining and expanding our Infrastructure Network. A total of R110 million of Capital Budget has been set aside in this regard. The amount is made up of R37 million to be invested in our Electricity Infrastructure Network, R21 million in our Roads and Surface Drainage Infrastructure Network, R25 million in our Water Network as well as R3 million for our own facilities.

We are also giving full attention to the maintenance of our Infrastructure Network. In that respect, we have allocated an amount of R75 million in respect of the Maintenance of our Infrastructure Network as well as all of our Facilities. The amount is made up of R10 million for the Maintenance of our Buildings, R12 million for Maintenance of our Roads and Surface Drainage Networks, R14 million for Maintenance of the Water and Waste Water Networks, R15 million for the Maintenance of our Electricity Networks, R6 million for the Maintenance of 150 Council owned vehicles which are not part of the full maintenance lease contract, R9 million for our Street lights maintenance and lastly, R8 million for General Maintenance.

We adopted a new approach towards the maintenance of our street and traffic lights and have ring-fenced an amount of R9 million for this purpose. We have already embarked on a process of repairing street lights throughout our Municipality. We encourage residents to report non-functioning Street lights to our Electricity Department so that we can send out our Contractors to go and repair them. We do need the assistance of all Community members in combating vandalism and specifically copper theft around the city so as to protect our Infrastructure. We are securing services of an external Contractor to provide us with protection and intelligence gathering that will result in us minimizing the high incidence of this huge unnecessary service interruption that we are experiencing due to acts of criminality in the city. Electric surveillance of strategic infrastructure and upgrading of existing security has become a priority.

The Programme of Roads and Surface Drainage is to ensure that our roads remain accessible and safe at all times. We are committed to eradicating potholes within the city completely in all our tarred roads by Christmas this year. Our plan is to involve the Youth and the recently established co-operatives within our Communities to participate in the programme of pothole repairs. Our Road Maintenance Programme total budget of R12 million is intended to create local jobs with an emphasis on utilizing local labour, youth, and women.

To improve our capacity to satisfactorily deliver services to our communities, we are committing up to R11 million a year on our fleet renewal programme. Through this, we are at an advanced stage of procuring an external service provider to provide us with 103 vehicles on a full maintenance lease contract.

Madam Speaker, our long-standing priority of rural development has not progressed as envisioned especially our quest to provide the minimum basic services to the rural masses in order to achieve amongst others the set millennium development goals. This happened due to the fact that most of the rural people live on privately owned land and stringent developmental planning requirements for rural settlement establishment. As we are currently in the process of finalizing the development of the spatial development framework of the city through which we aim to create an enabling environment for socio-economic development, we need to take the process further by establishing development nodes in all our rural areas.

This process will be followed by the development of precinct plans that will promote mixed land uses in these areas. This will enable the municipality and the various stakeholders who are eager to join forces with us to improve the lives of the rural people to give meaningful effect to our intentions for these areas. Furthermore, having acquired portions of land in these areas there is a need to embark on detailed planning and design process to aid our site and service approach for rural settlement establishment. To make this a reality, we have committed R16 million towards these planning processes and further land acquisition.

We are also aware that we are the frontline when dealing with disaster preparedness, mitigation, and management especially illegal evictions in rural areas. To ensure our meaningful intervention in this regard we have put aside R2, 4 m for this purpose.

We now turn to the budget proper:

 

Operational budget

The total operational expenditure budget to Mogale City as balanced to the total revenue forecasted for 2009/2010 is R1, 230 billion. This budget is R281, 066 million (or 30%) above the Approved Adjustment Budget for the current financial year (2008/2009). The Original Budget as approved by the Council for the 2008/2009 financial year was R977,664 million which is R252,628 million (or 26%) lesser than this proposed expenditure budget.

The Operational Expenditure per vote Allocations is made as follows:

Political Office 2% R29 million
Municipal Manager’s Office 2% R38 million
Corporate Support Services 4% R50 million
Financial Services 8% R95 million
Economic Services 4% R54 million
Social Services 11% R137 million
Environmental Management 11% R129 million
Infrastructure Management 58% R698 million
TOTAL EXPENDITURE R1, 230 billion

 

The Operational Budget per Expenditure Type is made up as follows:

Employee Remuneration Cost 29% R351 million
Bulk Purchases of Water & Electricity 24% R297 million
General Expenses 23% R287 million
Transfers to AFF-Capital 8% R104 million
Repairs & Maintenance 6% R75 million
Transfers recognised-Capital Grants 6% R70 million
Interest on External Borrowings 2% R25 million
Remuneration of Councillors 1% R10 million
Depreciation 0% R5 million

 

Capital budget

The total capital budget for Mogale City Local Municipality for 2009/10 is R179, 508 million. This is R27, 670 million above the 2008/09 Approved Adjustment Budget (18% above) and R39, 876 million above the current year’s Original Budget (28% above).

The Details of Funding confirmed to date are as follows:

  • R83, 394 million from Own Funding;
  • R21 million from the sale of land in Rangeview;
  • R5, 096 million from DBSA loan, this is co-funding of Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) project
    (New 6ML Muldersdrift Reservoir/Section B pipeline);
  • R42,767 million from MIG- the amount gazetted for MCLM in 2009/10 is R52, 449 million however 3.70% (R1, 941 million) of this amount is allowed to be used for operational expenditure;
  • R18,800 million for Neighbourhood Development Partnership;
  • R7 million from Gauteng Health and Social Development Department;
  • R900k from SARC for funding of libraries;
  • R550k from GOT-Seta, MCLM received R1, 895 million during 2008/09 financial year and spent R1, 657 million and the remaining balance will be rolled over to 2009/10 financial year.

 

The Capital Budget Expenditure will be distributed as follows:

Infrastructure Management 62% R110 million
Economic Services 15% R27 million
Social Services 9% R16 million
Environmental Management 8% R15 million
Corporate Services 5% R8 million
Strategic Services 1% R3 million
Financial Services 0% R331k
Political Office 0% R204k

The council also supports investment projects within the municipality’s boundaries that are totally funded by other government departments and/or private sector partners. These projects are termed ‘out-of-books’ projects since the funding for the projects does not flow through Mogale City’s bank account. A list of these projects amounting to R156 million is shown in Schedule 3(c) of the budget report. This includes the housing projects that will be undertaken by Province directly instead of MCLM acting as an agent.

The National Treasury recently issued the MFMA Circular 48 that requires municipalities to prepare their budgets in the context of the economic crisis we are facing. Our proposal on tariffs is informed exactly by the local economic conditions, unemployment and poverty levels. We have been careful to create a balance between municipal financial viability and not creating an unnecessary additional financial burden on the residents. The increases being proposed for 2009/10 are as follows:

Electricity 35.83%
Water Tariffs 15.3%
Sanitation tariffs 10%
Refuse collection tariffs 10%
Other user charges 8%

The electricity and water tariffs have been imposed on us by Eskom and Rand Water respectively. It should be noted that if NERSA tables a revised electricity pricing structure before the 1st July 2009, like all municipalities, we will be required to adjust our budget accordingly.

2009/10 financial year will see the full implementation of the Municipal Property Rates Act No 6 of 2004, which our municipality effects through the Rates Policy By-law. The new valuation of residential properties increased values of properties and in order to cushion the effect on the ratepayers, they will be accorded a rebate to the value of R40 000 on residential property valuations and a further reduction of 40% of the assessment rates computed. In modeling the tariffs an effort was made to spread the effect of the new rating system equitably among property owners.

 

Conclusion

This budget does not address all our wants and needs; however, it gives an indication of the extent we will go to as a caring municipality at the forefront of building a caring society. Our efforts will receive a boost from current thinking in the National Treasury to incentivize municipalities through rewards for those that create the most jobs. We are encouraged by the investment initiatives announced by the Gauteng Provincial government as a way of partially reducing the impact of the global meltdown on municipalities.

Ina recession money speaks. In a recession in South Africa, money speaks more than the official languages we have. However, it is important for us to emphasize that our developmental agenda remains the primary point of departure in the allocation of resources. It is something that is guided by our vision to provide quality service delivery for all communities in Mogale City.

We will ensure prudent use of municipal resources by stepping up our rollout of the Anti-Fraud and Corruption Strategy which calls for establishment of a Fraud and Corruption hotline; periodic Fraud Risk Assessment; conducting regular ethics awareness training for all employees and such measures as are appropriate to ensure that the municipality is able to provide service delivery seamlessly and on a sustainable basis.

Madam Speaker, ours is not a programme to simply take away the initiative from poverty and reinvigorate the city’s economy. The general thrust is also to ensure that we do not slacken the pace of service delivery we committed to in our IDP 2007-2011. For the people of Mogale City, this is their municipality, their vision, and their future. We dare not fail them.

I, therefore, move that this budget of Mogale City Local Municipality for the 2009/2010 to 2011/2012 financial years be approved as recommended in the budget report.

I thank you.

 

07 April 2009 Mayors speech at the Two-day 2010 Tourism Summit

Opening Remarks of the Honourable Executive Mayor, Cllr. Koketso Calvin Seerane of the Mogale City Local Municipality on the occasion of the Two-day 2010 Tourism Summit held at the Centenary Hall, Krugersdorp Civic Centre, Mogale City on the 7th April 2009.

Members of the 2010 Local Organizing committee;
Representatives of:
Match
Provincial 2010 Office
Gauteng Tourism Authority
Gauteng Enterprise Propeller
Department of Trade and Industry
Department of Transport
Tourism and Hospitality Training Authority
Members of the Mogale City Business community
Invited Guests
Friends and colleagues
Programme Director
People of Mogale City:

 

Introduction

The City of Human Origin extends a hand of welcome to all of you at this critical juncture in the preparations for the world’s largest sporting spectacle, The 2010 FIFA World Cup. We gather here today to try and explore ways of how we can maximize returns from this momentous project for businesses in Mogale City.

We should be reminded that the 2006 World Cup generated billions of Euros for the Germans, with merchandise valued at €2 billion being sold to fans at the event. That was 25% more than the 2002 games. This is in exclusion of the rights to marketing, television and so forth. In a nutshell, this is a multi-billion rand event that requires us to prime ourselves appropriately to make hay when the sun starts shining.

Our country will be host to people from 32 different countries in a bedazzling spectacle of 64 football matches that brings the cream of the crop to our shores. It will create a launching pad through which young people shall be inspired to reach for the stars in whatever endeavours they embark upon. It will give them something to dream about. Therefore, for us the 2010 World Cup is not simply a sports event, but undoubtedly an economic and social springboard for the vision we have to better the lives of our people.

In no time we will be hosting the Confederations Cup, the precursor to the bigger event. This event will be the litmus test for what it is that we in Mogale City are able to achieve next year. It will help us sharpen our tools to gain the utmost from the main event next year. We should seriously exploit our comparative and competitive advantages as a city in that :

  • we are strategically located to the four main venues of both the Confederation Cup and the 2010 soccer world cup
  • we have the most beautiful scenery and attractions, and we are home to the best tourism establishments in the province.

In line with our 2010 soccer world cup strategy, the municipality is currently engaged with other stakeholders in a number of enabling interventions which includes, amongst others, beautifying the city, strategic marketing the city as a destination to potential countries and undertaking the necessary infrastructural upgrades to ensure that ours becomes an attractive destination for the fans. This thinking has spurred us to a project to position our city as THE 2010 ULTIMATE FAN CITY.

As you are aware, tourism has become a key strategic area for creating employment and uplifting our economy. We should therefore as a collective work closely together to ensure that we offer the best possible hospitality to be able to accommodate huge numbers to this, their home. We should all strive that the 2010 Soccer World Cup becomes a showcase of our city that would result in more return visits surely knowing that they are coming back to where their roots are. However, we should continue to improve on our product offerings through diversification and service standards. Through these, we can continue to derive sustainable benefits out of this green gold.

In conclusion, we hope that this summit will afford all the players in the tourism space the opportunity to interact with each other. I urge all our emerging tourism entrepreneurs to use this opportunity to discuss issues that hinder their developmental potential so that they also grow to become major players in the industry.

I therefore hope that this summit will identify issues that must be addressed so that we can increase our arrivals and length of stay for both domestic and international tourists. More than anything, it should be in accordance with the responsible tourism principles. We wish you successful deliberations.

I thank you.

ARCHIVED SPEECHES

2008 SPEECHES

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