Author: cogta_adm

KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka has condemned the cold-blooded murder of Khaya Sithole who served as ward 1 councillor in the Msinga municipality and who was gunned down in full glare of the public shortly after attending a council event on Thursday evening.

“We condemn this heinous act in the strongest language and we express our heartfelt condolences to the family and constituents of the slain councillor. We also urge the community of Msinga to remain calm and allow the law enforcement agencies to investigate this incident without delay,” said Hlomuka.

Preliminary information indicates that the slain councillor was participating in a municipal event when unknown assailants fired a hail of bullets on him. KZN Cogta is urging the police to leave no stone unturned in apprehending the perpetrators of this crime and in bringing them to justice speedily.

“We have consistently spoken out against violence perpetrated against public representatives in this province and we will continue to do so. Violence is never the answer. Violence must be tackled with the full might of the law and this is what we all expect to happen now. We are more saddened to learn that the councillor was murdered with his boots on while working to advance the course of service to his community”’ said Hlomuka.

KZN Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) has welcomed two remaining convictions of its former officials in the infamous R7.5-million staff fraud case that rocked the department in 2015.

“The conviction of two former officials and their custody ahead of sentencing sends a strong message that embezzlement of public funds cannot be tolerated,” said KZN MEC for Cogta Sipho Hlomuka. The two officials are Patricia Chule and Hlengiwe Hlela who were previously part of Cogta’s Supply Chain management unit.

The two convictions are in addition to an earlier sentencing of businessman Mex Dladla to 12 years in prison in connection with the same crime. Dladla was the mastermind behind the embezzlement plan facilitated by the department’s two employees.

“The convictions are a boost to building an ethical state by eliminating fraud and corruption among state officials as one of the grimy restraints on the acceleration of service delivery to communities. This is a good day for the whole provincial government” said Hlomuka.

KZN Cogta has in response to this highly publicised fraud case significantly tightened its internal controls over payment procedures to prevent further fraudulent activities among employees. The two convicted officials will be sentenced on 8 November.

 

KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka has welcomed today’s judgement by the Pietermaritzburg High Court which has effectively prevented an electricity power supply to the residents and businesses of Newcastle local municipality due to debt owed to Eskom.

“Today’s judgement is a welcome relief to the residents and businesses of Newcastle as well as Cogta which had joined the municipality’s bid to prevent the electricity switch-off. At the same time, the judgement does not exempt Newcastle from settling its debt with Eskom which is also good news for the power utility” said Hlomuka.

KZN Cogta has actively supported the efforts of Newcastle municipality to force Eskom to accept its payment plan rather than pull the plug on all consumers and businesses within its jurisdiction. The payment plan has been drafted with Cogta’s assistance and it is deemed affordable by the department given the municipality’s financial obligations.

“It was absolutely crucial that the power supply to Newcastle should remain uninterrupted as the opposite would have been devastating for the local economy and prospects for future investment. We also believe that the judgement which forces Newcastle to pay up is good for the municipality because it imposes a degree of financial responsibility,” said Hlomuka.

KZN Cogta is assisting all municipalities in the province where there is substantial debt owed to Eskom to prepare realistic payment plans and settle their obligations. At the same time, the department is conducting a public awareness campaign which appeals to the general public to settle their utility bills to ensure that Eskom is able to continue to power the country and its economy.

KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka is urging municipalities in the province to cooperate closely with the office of the Auditor General in ensuring a successful audit season and a conducive environment for the Auditor-General team. MEC Hlomuka made the call following a high-profile meeting with the Auditor General’s office this morning.

“The Auditor General is a pillar institution supporting our constitutional democracy. It is critical that all of us create an environment that enables it to perform its functions without fear or favour.  As the province of KZN, we commit to decisively deal with anyone who attempts to hamper the Auditor General’s work in our municipalities in the current audit season and beyond,” said Hlomuka.

“As KZN Cogta, are working proactively to create an environment between the Auditor General’s office and our municipalities to ensure a successful audit season. Such an environment requires seamless cooperation between auditors and auditees, that is municipalities. This is in the best interest of municipalities themselves,” said Hlomuka.

KZN Cogta has, in the same breath, also made it clear that any lack of cooperation from municipalities with the office of the Auditor General in the audit process will attract consequence management measures against any and all individuals who are found to be standing in the way of a successful audit season in the province’s municipalities.

“We are calling on all councillors and all municipal oversight structures to ensure that their municipalities give the Auditor General’s office their full cooperation. This is precisely what councillors and municipal oversight structures have, among other things, been elected to do so we are simply appealing that they discharge their duties,” said Hlomuka.

KZN Cogta maintains that annual municipal audits are a fairly good indication of how municipalities are performing and the department is determined to ensure that these audits essentially unfold in an atmosphere marked by full and unhindered cooperation and trust between the two sides to municipal audits, namely auditors and auditees.

KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka officially launched the Harry Gwala District Multi Planting Season Programme at eZidweni, in Ward 4 at the Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma local municipality this morning.

Through this district-wide programme, the Provincial Government has invested R12- million to assist residents with farming. This support will include the provision of tractors  to promote crop production as a catalyst for economic development, job creation and poverty alleviation in the communal land within the district.

Under this programme, 1500 hectares of land will be farmed across the local municipalities of Greater Kokstad, NDZ and uMzimkhulu. Cooperatives that specialise in farming will also benefit through this programme as 600 people are to be employed through them to farm.

Speaking to residents at the eZidweni sports grounds, MEC Hlomuka urged residents to till the soil as a means of not only surviving but to broaden their prospects since farming continues to provide several opportunities.

“We are here today to say to you that as a government we will support you in farming the vast hectares of land that this district is blessed with. Farming presents many opportunities and the government has programmes that provide easy access to markets for farmers,” said Hlomuka.

The farmers’ produce will be distributed to supermarkets, schools, hospitals and prisons within this district.

The KZN Provincial House of Traditional Leaders Chairperson Inkosi Phathisizwe Chiliza, who is also the Harry Gwala Local House Chair, thanked the Provincial Government for its commitment to empowering and encouraging communities to farm. “We have started to see the impact of this push by government to get our communities back to farming,” said Chiliza.

Greetings ladies and gentlemen of the media

Thank you very much for gracing this media briefing organised by the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders with your presence.

 

Introduction

The Provincial House of Traditional Leaders held its ordinary session from the 30th of September to the 1st of October 2019. The meeting focused on a number of issues pertinent to the role of the institution of traditional leadership in supporting our constitutional democracy and in facilitating the programme to drive development and growth, especially in our rural areas.

The House reflected on the following key issues that are presently in the public discourse:

 

• Gender-based violence;
• The ongoing land discussions; and
• Violence directed at foreign nationals

After deep reflections and deliberations, the House resolved as follows:

 

Gender-based violence

The Provincial House of Traditional Leaders joins all sectors of society in condemning and abhorring the incidents of murder, rape, and other forms of violence directed at women and children. These incidents are doing a lot of harm to the reputation of our country and pose a serious threat to unity and cohesion within our society. The rising tide of incidents of violent attacks and sexual offenses against women and children are a sure sign that something is broken within the fabric of our society.

As part of efforts to stem this sickening tide, as traditional leaders, we have resolved to lead campaigns in all areas within the jurisdiction of traditional leaders with a view of raising awareness and imparting information in order to protect our people against gender-based violence.

We have committed to partnering with government and all civil society structures to identify the causes of these maladies and the hotspots where they occur most frequently so that we can nip these dastardly deeds in the bud. We support calls for those found guilty of these acts to be named and shamed and not be allowed to reside in traditional communities.

To this end, we call upon the law enforcement agencies to continuously engage with traditional councils and provide them with regular statistical information so that, together, we can wage a united front against this scourge. We will also pursue engagements with the police leadership so that the cluster commanders and station commanders can have regular and joint initiatives with traditional communities in combating gender-based violence.

Let us be absolutely clear. We regard this violence meted to our women, children and vulnerable groups as a declaration of war and we have to provide concomitant responses to it wherever it occurs. We ask that programmes aimed at empowering women to identify early warning signs of gender-based violence be intensified and that the necessary resources be made available also to traditional leadership structures. At the same time, the justice system must mete out the harshest and maximum of sentences to all those found to be perpetrators of violence against women, children and vulnerable groups in our society.

Key Programmes on gender-based violence by Amakhosi

We will be partnering in rolling out Isibaya samadoda (Men’s forum) in all traditional councils where we will be mentoring young men with the intention of inculcating the culture of respect for women and children.

All amakhosi committed themselves to conducting an audit on any part of culture or tradition that may exist within traditional communities and which discriminates against women so that it can be brought to the House for review

 

Land debate

The KZN Provincial House of Traditional Leaders also noted the ongoing debates around land related matters, especially those triggered by the Presidential Review Panel and the Amendment of Section 25 of the Constitution to enable expropriation of land without compensation.

The Provincial House of Traditional Leaders, first and foremost, wishes to recognise that the loss of land by indigenous people during the colonial and apartheid regimes was indeed a painful and sorrowful chapter in the history of South Africa’s native citizens.

Land is inextricably tied to our own identity. It is an important part of our heritage that since time immemorial we have used for socio-economic advancement of our people. Many of our forebears fought pitch battles and paid the supreme price in defence of the land.

It is against this background that we support a speedy land reform programme that could result in redress and return of the land that was taken illegally from traditional communities. Today we speak of some traditional leaders who are said to be landless due to the history of dispossession, hence an implementation of land initiatives that respond to previous injustices will be supported.

As traditional leaders, we have a vested interest in all land matters and it is against this background that we wish to state our support for the call by His Majesty the King that this matter of land be handled with care and in a manner that does not divide our society.

We welcome the approach by His Excellency the President, Cyril Ramaphosa, in convening the Land Summit scheduled for October 2019. As traditional leaders in KwaZulu-Natal, we have initiated a programme that will enable us to have a meaningful participation in this Land Summit.

To this end, we have resolved to visit and consult with all Local Houses to ascertain the input of traditional leaders on how the land should be distributed and to whom. We have established a task team that will consult on behalf of the House on all land matters whether it is the Ingonyama Trust land, state land or private land.

The input gained from this exercise will help us respond to the wider debate about Ingonyama Trust land, expropriation of land without compensation, title deeds in traditional communities as well as pertinently asked questions about who should be allocated the land.

We reiterate the position that land is not for sale but that it is a socio-economic instrument that should be used for the settlement of our people, food production and development.

 

Attacks on foreign nationals

The House also took a position on the recent incidents of violence directed at foreign nationals in our country. As traditional leaders, we are against all attacks on foreign nationals. Those behind these acts must be exposed and reported so that they can face the full might of the law.

As amakhosi, we are custodians of peace and unity and we frown upon any acts of violence or discrimination against fellow human beings. We will be engaging with all our structures to ensure that no one engages in these abhorrent acts in the name of culture, tradition or the institution of traditional leadership.

Having said this, we want to appeal to government to ensure that regulations for effective control of the influx of foreign nationals are adhered to within the confines of the law and our country’s sovereignty. Government clearly needs to tighten border controls to ensure that those who do enter our country are in possession of the correct documentation.

We want to reiterate that like all other states, our country is not a banana republic. No one should obtain a South African citizenship through the back door. We commit to protecting the foreign nationals who are within our borders legally and, in the same vein, encourage government to engage with all states of origin of foreign nationals to invest into creating conditions that do not lead to people leaving their own countries.

With the crime levels on the increase, we are concerned about the undocumented nationals and we also ask government to act decisively against those involved in criminal activities and that their stay in the country bereviewed.

 

Conclusion

As the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders in KwaZulu-Natal, we commit ourselves to honouring the struggles of our forebears by defending the women, children and the vulnerable groups in our society. We cannot allow our country to become a war zone. We also commit ourselves to peaceful coexistence with foreign nationals who reside in this country legally.

We are fully aware of the great responsibility that lies on our shoulders as traditional leaders to create a peaceful, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous society. An equitable redistribution of land seized from us in the past is one of the prerequisites of this ultimate objective.

 

We thank you for your attention.

 

A novel initiative to provide educational and job opportunities for young people has been announced by the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in KwaZulu-Natal, Sipho Hlomuka.

The Graduate support and placement program will see over 500 youth being recruited and trained in various fields that are of demand to the local government sector, these youths will then be placed in various municipalities as part of the capacity building programme.

The Department of Cogta issued an advert inviting unemployed graduates to apply.  Graduates who have successfully completed a 3 or 4-year qualification in the following disciplines:

• Civil Engineering, Construction and Build Management
• Internal Audit and Risk Management
• Urban and Regional Planning
• Finance and Accounting
• Electrical Engineering
• Water Engineering and Quality Management
• Plumbing and Sanitation
• GIS and Land Use
• Human Resources Management

“The task of reposition the sphere of local government in the province of KwaZulu-Natal is going full steam ahead,” Hlomuka said as he announced the commencement of the program.

“In the assessment that we did of municipalities in our province, the glaring need for specialized skills especially in the areas of Engineering, Finance, Town planning and human resources. We, therefore, took a decision to embark on this groundbreaking project in which we will recruit young people who are graduates with the aim of sending them our municipalities where they will harness their skills and improve the level of service delivery,” said Hlomuka.

Through this initiative, we are addressing the most pressing socio-economic challenges facing young people, particularly skills development and youth unemployment in our province.

Through this program, we want to change the lives of many young people. We encourage young people to apply and take advantage of the opportunities presented by this program. We know it is not a panacea to the big unemployed challenge but a humble contribution and will make a difference.

Applications for selection into this program have officially opened and close on Friday 11 October 2019.

This will be a 24-month graduate placement programme, which we will see 500 young people deployed to municipalities across the province.

It comes hot on the heels of the launch of Operation Khawuleza (hurry up) by the department, where plant equipment valued at R160 million is being given to municipalities to assist them to respond quickly to service delivery needs of communities.

Entries for this programme officially opened on 27 September and close on Friday 11 October.

To apply young people can visit www.kzncogta.gov.za/vacancies.

KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka has expressed his shock and sadness at the passing of Inkosi Magutshwa Bhekinkosi Simelane (62) of the Simelane Traditional Council in uPhongolo. The inkosi passed away following a short illness.

 
“Inkosi Simelane took on the traditional post in 1988 and has since led his people with distinction through very difficult circumstances. His legacy is one of a community builder, a unifier and a foot soldier in the war against social ills plaguing communities in the uPhongolo local municipality. His passing leaves a great gap in the sphere of traditional leadership in our province,” said Hlomuka.

 

Inkosi took his role in his community very seriously and participated in the uPhongolo and Zululand Councils in terms of Section 81 of the Municipal Structures Act of 2000. The Act makes provision for amakhosi to participate in municipal councils. This bears testimony to Inkosi’s commitment to ensuring that his community is developed.

 
Hlomuka has expressed his condolences to the family of Inkosi and the Simelane Traditional Council. Inkosi will be laid to rest in uPhongolo this Saturday, 28 September, at his homestead
KwaShoba.

 

 
Ends.

KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka has condemned the violence that occurred at the Newcastle local municipality where a brick allegedly thrown by striking workers hit and injured the mayor, Cllr Ntuthuko Mahlaba.

 
“This attack on the mayor is not taken lightly by the department since mayors are public representatives who are tasked with spearheading the delivery of services to our communities. Threats, intimidation and assault on any mayor will never be tolerated by the department and strong action needs to be taken against those who are responsible for this heinous act,” said Hlomuka.

 
KZN Cogta MEC has called upon the law enforcement agencies to investigate the incident. “No amount of industrial action can ever justify an attack on our public representatives. We are also calling upon workers in other municipalities to exercise their right to strike in a manner that respects the rule of law,” said Hlomuka.

 

 

Ends