MOSSEL BAY NEWS - "Mossel Bay has a trend-setting municipality," executive mayor Alderman Harry Levendal said when he tabled the municipal annual report during a special council meeting on Tuesday, 5 December.
Not only was Mossel Bay voted the Kwêla Town of the Year, but the municipality achieved a sixth consecutive clean audit, quite a feat and it is one of a very small number of municipalities that can boast with this achievement.
In the first annual report of his tenure, Alderman Levendal said despite several challenges the municipality had managed to adequately meet the demand for basic services to all residents and had performed well with the acceleration of its infrastructure development programme.
"The municipality has managed to successfully execute its capital programme with a total expenditure of R144 823 488, which constitutes 95 percent of the total budget and is above the 90% expenditure target.
"This, however, has to be qualified in the context of service delivery, as 5% under expenditure does not relate to the overall number of projects completed, but is partly made up of savings yielded on projects successfully completed.
"I can convincingly announce regarding the capital projects that did not come to fruition, this was due to external factors beyond the municipality's control."
Payment record
Alderman Levendal thanked residents for the exemplary 99.3 percent payment record despite the difficult economic times.
"Basic service delivery standards and levels have been sustained with all formal and informal households having access to clean water, sanitation and refuse removal.
"The backlog for electricity connections are only prevalent in informal settlements.
"These backlogs are gradually phased out through the municipality's human settlement delivery plan, as well as through the special electrification project funded by the department of energy," the mayor said.
He highlighted housing projects executed in the past year, most notably the relocation of several Powertown residents to Sonskynvallei as well as the appointment of a contractor for the building of 154 houses in Herbertsdale.
Poverty alleviation
"The municipality proved its continued commitment and willingness to help the poorest of the poor and to alleviate poverty across all communities and adopted several policy resolutions in this regard.
"In the past financial year, 12 337 households received indigent support, among others 50 kWh of free electricity and 6kl free water.
"All other Mossel Bay households continue to receive the 20 kWh of free electricity. In addition, pensioners continue to receive considerable discounts on property rates and taxes."
The fight against poverty and unemployment remained a priority and the municipality created 794 jobs through the Extended Public Works Programme and through the implementation of capital works programmes.
In addition, the entrepreneur street cleaning programme remained one of the municipality's success stories and a driver behind several of the awards received for the past years in the category of environmental cleaning.
The municipality entered into an agreement with PetroSA for the newly-established Youth Café in Great Brak River and supports targeted services, programmes and opportunities for the youth in the area.
Challenges
"Unfortunately there were numerous challenges and disappointments, with one of the biggest challenges being vandalism of public property and infrastructure, a tendency that has a direct negative impact on the municipality's ability to eradicate backlogs and to develop new infrastructure and services.
"Vandalism remains the second largest strategic risk the municipality has to deal with.
"December 2016 and the first half of 2017 were plagued with devastating veld fires and I can only say that I am humbled to witness the commitment and dedication with which our staff have responded to these challenges."
ARTICLE & PHOTO: NICKEY LE ROUX, MOSSEL BAY ADVERTISER NEWS EDITOR
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