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District Champion, Minister in the Presidency Jackson Mthembu concluding his first Ministerial Visit to the Harry Gwala District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.

The Minister was engaged in a comprehensive two-day programme covering briefings and discussions with stakeholders, site visits to medical and shelter facilities and interactions with the media.

“The President has sent us to visit all Districts in the country to asses our response to the COVID-19 pandemic and Gender Based Violence and Femicide – which the President has also characterized as a second pandemic in South Africa,” said Minister Mthembu.
“We are very impressed with the district’s response to COVID-19.

The two healthcare facilities we visited demonstrated that we had all systems in place to respond to this novel coronavirus. We reiterate our gratitude to all public servants, especially our healthcare workers who have been at the forefront of this battle,” Mthembu added.

The Minister also noted the importance of establishing an integrated structure at a District level to respond to Gender Based Violence and Femicide in the local communities.

This weekend’s two-day programme will be followed by community engagement programmes in other local municipalities in the Harry Gwala District.

“Our visit to the Harry Gwala District is informed by the implementation of the District Development Model (DDM). The DDM requires government as a whole to work together in a seamless manner to deliver services to our people,” Mthembu concluded.

This morning, the KwaZulu-Natal Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC, Sipho Hlomuka met with Amakhosi, residents, business and civil society organisations in the eMadlangeni Local Municipality to inform them of the decision taken by the provincial government to place their municipality under administration.

On Thursday, 3 September, MEC Hlomuka met with the Council of the Municipality to inform them of the decision taken by the government to place the municipality under Administration. In the meeting MEC Hlomuka announced Mr Velaphi Kubheka.

In his meeting with community members Hlomuka assured them that the provincial government was doing the best it can to get their municipality back onto its feet. “The Administrator that we have appointed will be working closely with our officials to ensure that adequate support is provided to the municipality. The administrator will also investigate any allegation of corruption and ensure that people are held accountable” said Hlomuka.

 

In the interest of achieving long-term stability in the province’s municipalities that are under administration, KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka has appointed new administrators in the uThukela and uMzinyathi district municipalities.

on Friday, 4 September MEC Hlomuka met with the council of the uThukela district where he announced former Head of Department in the KZN Provincial Treasury Mr Simiso Magagula as the new administrator. Magagula’s deployment to this municipality as the ministerial representative follows the resignation of the current administrator Mr Martin Sithole.

Magagula brings a wealth of experience with the finances of the province’s municipalities.

On the same day, MEC Hlomuka also met with the council of the uMzinyathi District where he announced Mr Themba Mavundla as the new administrator. Mavundla had previously served as HOD at the KZN Department of Community Safety and Liaison. He takes over from Mr Ayanda Makhanya.

These new appointments are expected to bring much needed insights and expertise to the two district municipalities which continue to face challenges in governance, financial management and the provision of service delivery to their communities.

The deployment of these seasoned administrators is part of efforts by the department to ensure that municipalities under administration receive the best support that will enable them to improve quickly and sustainably.

The administrators are expected to ratify decisions taken by their respective councils and ensure that challenges pertaining to governance and financial management issues are addressed speedily within these districts.

3 September 2020

KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka this morning read the riot act to the eMadlangeni councillors when he visited the municipality to announce the decision by the provincial government to place this municipality under administration in terms of section 139(1)(b) of the constitution.

The decision to institute the constitutional intervention at the municipality is the culmination of Cogta’s previous efforts to address dysfunctionality at this municipality which has since March 2020 been engulfed in governance and institutional management challenges that have created instability.

The challenges faced by the municipality include:

• the failure to adopt its 2020/2021 Budget and Integrated Development Plan timeously whereby it contravened Section 52 of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the provisions of Chapter 5 of the Municipal Systems Act
• failure by the Speaker to convene council meetings when requested to do so by councillors,
• the suspension of senior managers in contravention of relevant regulations, and
• allegations of fraudulent activities by both councillors and officials.

Hlomuka’s appointed administrator is VM Kubheka who had previously served as Municipal Manager at eMadlangeni and as Acting Municipal Manager at eNdumeni local municipality. The ministerial representative will be based at the municipality and will prepare and implement a comprehensive recovery plan.

The ministerial representative will also ensure the implementation of remedial action plans dealing with negative findings from the Auditor General, including consequence management against managers and officials found to have caused unauthorised and irregular expenditure.

In his address to the council, Hlomuka called upon all the councillors to work with the administrator so that this municipality can be restored to its rightful place as the epicentre for delivery of basic services to communities in this deep rural area of KZN.

For more information, contact: Ms Nonala Ndlovu, 066 282 6903; or Senzelwe Mzila, 082 474 1882

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Website: www.kzncogta.gov.za

Ends.

UTRECHT: 3 SEPTEMBER 2020

 

 

Honourable Speaker and Councillors

 

Introduction

 

We have come to Utrecht today to address you on a very important subject of ensuring good governance as a prerequisite for long-term stability of this municipality. The residents of this rural municipality rely on eMadlangeni for the provision of basic services but what they actually see has a lot to be desired.

 

It is therefore our duty as Cogta, following the resolution of the Provincial Executive, to make an important announcement before this Council regarding the immediate future of this municipality. We are here to support and assist, not to point fingers or penalise.

 

Purpose of the address

 

The purpose of today’s address is therefore to apprise this Council of the Provincial Executive’s decision to intervene in this municipality in terms of Section 139(1)b of the Constitution to restore this municipality’s functionality in terms of proper governance, administration and, by extension, service delivery.

 

Background and summary

 

The decision to institute the constitutional intervention at eMadlangeni today is the culmination of Cogta’s previous efforts to address dysfunctionality at this municipality which has since March 2020 been engulfed with governance and institutional management challenges that have created instability.

 

This has manifested itself in the municipality’s failure to adopt its 2020/2021 Budget and Integrated Development Plan timeously whereby it contravened Section 52 of the Municipal Finance Management Act and the provisions of Chapter 5 of the Municipal Systems Act.

 

These challenges include allegations that the Speaker has previously failed to convene Council meetings when requested to do so by Councillors, the suspension of senior managers in contravention of relevant regulations and allegations of fraudulent activities by both Councillors and officials.

 

We at KZN Cogta have interacted with this municipality in an effort to assist it to resolve its challenges. The situation has not improved at the municipality and under these circumstances the Provincial Executive Council was requested to consider intervening at the municipality in terms of Section 139(1)b of the Constitution.

 

The intervention has been approved by the Provincial Cabinet and it is intended to stabilise the administration of eMadlangeni, to restore the general public’s confidence in the institution and to ensure continued service delivery for the benefit of the residents of this rural municipality.

 

I would like to note that this is not the first time eMadlangeni has seen such intervention. In the past, a similar set of circumstances, including financial, governance and service delivery challenges, led to an intervention which helped to stabilise the municipality. My hope is that this intervention will do the same.

 

Reasons for the intervention

 

In addition to the challenges I summarised earlier, the intervention we are announcing today is due to the failure by this municipality to hold its Councillors accountable for deliberately absenting themselves from critical meetings and thus collapsing the quorum and rendering the Council dysfunctional.

 

This municipality has also failed to institute consequence management measures for managers and other officials responsible for irregular payments. In this context, the eMadlangeni Council has failed to prevent unauthorised and irregular expenditure in accordance with Section 62(1)d of the MFMA. The Council has also failed to investigate such malpractices and hold those responsible to account.

 

Way forward

 

Going forward, I as MEC for Cogta, am therefore announcing an intervention in terms of Section 139(1)b of the Constitution, 1996, at eMadlangeni in order to assume the functions specified in terms of Sections 51, 56 and 57 of the Municipal Systems Act as well as those related to financial management and service delivery, including project management.

 

To this end, we are appointing a ministerial representative to be based at the municipality who will prepare and implement a comprehensive recovery plan. Our appointee is Mr VM Kubheka who had previously served as Municipal Manager here at eMadlangeni and as Acting Municipal Manager at eNdumeni local municipality.

 

Our ministerial representative will ensure implementation of financial systems, policies and procedures, including preparation and implementation of cost-cutting measures. The administrator will be a compulsory signatory on the municipality’s bank accounts

 

The ministerial representative will also establish and act as chairperson of the Interim Finance Committee to monitor and manage the cash flow of the municipality, to approve or disapprove purchase requisitions and to ensure that the municipality’s cash position is not overdrawn. This newly established committee will have to meet and report fortnightly to the Executive Committee of the eMadlangeni Council.

 

The ministerial representative will also ensure the implementation of remedial action plans dealing with negative findings from the Auditor General, including consequence management against managers and officials found to have caused unauthorised and irregular expenditure. Our representative will similarly ensure implementation of findings arising from any investigations into fraud or maladministration or corruption and to initiate new investigations where necessary.

 

It is time for a fresh start in this municipality. After a period of instability and poor results, the people of Utrecht deserve that we give them a municipality they can be proud of through our hard work and flawless performance. The challenge for us here is to make sure that this municipality will soon live up to its promise of maintaining infrastructure, including roads, managing waste and delivering basic services to its communities.

 

As an elected municipal Council, you are now urged to accept this new temporary arrangement and cooperate with our ministerial representative to ensure a smooth running of this municipality and its return to normality until this intervention is formally called off. It is our shared responsibility to ensure that this municipality once again becomes a source of pride for its residents.

 

I thank you!

1 September 2020

KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka this morning launched a ground-breaking water purification and carting project wherein his department and the uMkhanyakude district municipality are partnering with the South African National Defence Force to purify raw water taken from the Mkhuze River and distribute it to needy communities across the district.

Through this intervention, the SANDF is utilising its experts and resources to purify up to 150 000 litres of water a day drawn from the river in Nhlangano village in Ward 3 of the Jozini local municipality. This water is then distributed to rural communities in uMhlabuyalingana, Jozini, and Big Five Hlabisa municipalities through water tankers provided by the district.

This cost-effective intervention also enables water tankers to deliver water to communities faster, thus eliminating the need for locals to travel long distances to access purified water. Speaking at the launch this morning, Hlomuka has emphasised the cost-effectiveness of this short-term intervention, through which more than 45 000 households, including schools and businesses, are benefiting.

“The uMkhanyakude district is a water-scarce area with the biggest dam in the district (the Phongola Poort Dam) currently sitting at 41%, which is very low. This is the result of the drought that has affected many water sources across our province. We are relieved by the support that has been provided by the SANDF. With their own expertise in water purification, the water is constantly tested for quality,” said Hlomuka.

During today’s launch, Hlomuka was accompanied by the uMkhanyakude district Mayor Cllr Mkhombo, who emphasised the district’s commitment to ensuring that the water that is purified by the SANDF is carted to surrounding communities speedily. Hlomuka has thanked the SANDF for the good work their team of soldiers has been doing through this intervention.

A member of the community, Hlengiwe Mkhize (47) has welcomed the intervention which has brought water closer. “We no longer face the risk of being injured by wild animals and crocodiles as we no longer have to fetch water from the river and we are now able to access it from the SANDF-managed area,” said Mkhize.

For more information, contact: Ms Nonala Ndlovu, 066 282 6903; or Senzelwe Mzila, 082 474 1882

Twitter: www.twitter.com/kzncogta

Facebook: www.facebook.com/kzncogta

Instagram: www.instagram.com/kzncogta

Website: www.kzncogta.gov.za

Ends.

31 August 2020

KZN MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Sipho Hlomuka will be launching a ground-breaking water purification and carting intervention in partnership with the South African National Defence Force in the water-scarce uMkhanyakude district municipality tomorrow.

Through this intervention, the SANDF is utilising its experts and resources to purify up to 150 000 litres of water a day drawn from the Mkuze River. This water is then distributed to rural communities in uMhlabuyalingana, Jozini, and Big Five Hlabisa through the water tankers provided by the uMkhanyakude district.

This cost-effective intervention also enables water tankers to deliver water to communities faster, eliminating the need for locals to travel long distances to access purified water. In the long run, this could save the government millions of rands. More than 45 000 households, including schools and businesses, will benefit from the project.

This ground-breaking partnership will be officially launched by Hlomuka who will be visiting the basin of the Mkuze River, just outside Hluhluwe near Isimangaliso Wetland Park where this project is operating from.

Members of the media are invited to attend the launch, the details of which are as follows:

Date: Tuesday, 1 September 2020

Time: 09:00am

Venue: Nhlangano Village, just outside Hluhluwe at the entrance of iSimangaliso Wetlands Park (first left after entering iSimangaliso after crossing the bridge)

For more information, contact: Ms Nonala Ndlovu, 066 282 6903 (Head of Communications); or Senzelwe Mzila (Media Liaison Officer), 082 474 1882

Twitter: www.twitter.com/kzncogta

Facebook: www.facebook.com/kzncogta

Instagram: www.instagram.com/kzncogta

Website: www.kzncogta.gov.za

Ends.

28 August 2020

Gender-Based Violence Awareness Campaign:

The purpose of our visit to this district today is to comfort families who have been victims of gender-based violence (GBV)

We have come to this local municipality because of the high number of incidents where young women and children have lost lives to GBV

Our presence here at the Donnybrook police station is aimed at getting feedback from you as law enforcement agencies on the progress you have made in the war against the scourge of GBV

We understand that the fight against GBV is one which we all need to play a part in

The good work that is done by your team is appreciated because we understand that as law enforcement agencies you are at times under-resourced and have to use creative means to continue to provide adequate support to our communities

The good work that you do is reliant on us as community members being reliable people who will blow the whistle on GBV whenever and wherever it occurs

Singamalunga omphakathi asikwazi nhlobo ukuthula uma kuhlukunyezwa abantu besifazane kanye nezingane. Yingakho sithi kubalulekile ukuthi sisebenzisane sonke

Kubuhlungu ukuthi silahlekelwa ngodadewethu, ngomama ngoAunti ezandleni zabantu abebethandana nabo. Yingakho sithe singumnyango asilisebenzise lelithuba ukuthi size lapha kulomasipala, njengoba kuyi-Women’s Month sizoqhakambisa iqhaza ekumele silidlale sonke ekulweni nokuhlukunyezwa kwabantu besifazane

Ukuvakashela imindeni lokhu esizokwenza yinto engikholwa ukuthi ibalulekile ngoba uma umuntu esedlule ebuhlungwini bokulahlekelwa yingane, umama noma uAunti wakhe, kumele sikwazi ukumvakashele sekwenzekile konke sizombeka ukuthi ngabe unjani kanye nokuthi yikuphi esingakwenza ukuqinisekisa ukuthi bayakwazi ukunqoba lesi simo

This visit, I believe, will also be an opportunity for the SAPS to update the families about the process of the respective cases that are being handled here. This is an important step because our SAPS members are normally the first port of call and for us to visit the families together with the SAPS is an important gesture which I believe will help these families to heal and find closure

Water Interventions:

I understand also that we will be visiting Ward 10 and specifically the village called Come and See. This visit is important because water provision is one of the tools we use to spare our young children and women from having to fetch water from distant places

I understand that in this area the community gets water from an unprotected water spring which is located in a ravine. The distance from the houses is over one kilometre in a very steep incline

As part of our visit today, we are going to hand over a static water tank for this community to serve the local people while the Mbulelweni Water Supply project is being completed

It is our hope that our children and women here will no longer have to walk long distances in order to fetch water

While we celebrate Women’s month, it is important that we address the plight of rural women through practical interventions that will assist in preserving their dignity by access to water in a manner that is safe and convenient

As I conclude, I appeal to all of us to continue to be the change that we want to see in our communities

I thank you!

Programme Director;

MEC for Cogta, Mr SE Hlomuka;

Professor Somadoda Fikeni

Members of the Executive Management Committee;

Senior Middle and Junior Managers;

Ladies and gentlemen;

• As you know and as I keep reminding colleagues of every opportunity, I have always been a vocal advocate of clearly defined service delivery objectives with realistic budgets and reasonable timeframes. I hope that this review session will revive these simple prerogatives as we chart the direction KZN Cogta will take in the immediate future to meet its constitutional mandate as we face the enormity of the Covid-19 pandemic.
• We have set for ourselves a long-term target of building capable local governance institutions wherein people who pay their rates and service charges to their respective municipalities get high quality public services in return. In addition, we now also aspire to stabilise the sphere of local government where municipal operations and local economies have been severely disrupted by Covid-19.
• We are meeting as extended MANCO to reflect on performance amid the state of national disaster declared by the President in March
• Government as a whole has shown great interest in risk assessment and management but possibility of lockdown couldn’t be foreseen
• The nation wide lockdown will inevitable have devastating effects on the performance and success story we vouched to tell in a short and long term.
• We are here now and the onus is on us to salvage what we can in our sector towards social stability through viable local government
• As COGTA our road to recovery starts here and today
• An organisation’s effectiveness is directly affected by its crisis management process and save it from total shutdown of it’s work processes as we are not absolved from service delivery.
• Business continuity management committee becomes key support in taking decisions that will encourage stability.
• Performance management relies on planning, monitoring, reviewing and evaluating. We are today about reviewing, assessing what is already done for forward looking purposes.
• This is why we have invited to today’s session an astute analyst Prof Fikeni to tell us the hard truths about our sector.
• Circumstance are forcing us to be in unison about what employees can do differently and reprioritised objectives, hence the invitation was extended to junior and middle management.
• The local government sphere has been allocated additional budget as the sphere together with Health that is at the coal face of the fight against COVID-19.
• Programme 2 in particular, needs to be elaborate on support required in this regard.
• The department suffered a loss of 408 million during the recent mandatory budget cuts by Treasury and resulted in reprioritisation and re-tabling of it’s strategic plans. It is at times like these where the Batho-Pele principle of Efficiency, doing more with less, has to be strived for.
• Minister of finance said explaining zero-based budgeting that the country needs to move towards and I quote “we need to refocus our attention on the growth-enhancing activities and no longer take for granted that the baseline that was there last year, will always be the case”
• For us a mammoth task of driving the District Development Model remains which is the strategy of the 6th administration to bring about growth and development in Districts.
• Cooperatively organising sector departments we are compelled to move with speed with rolling out DDM, to pool our limited resources together to ensure that we focus our attention on where the people are and on supporting economic activity in the lives of our people.
• The need to still develop infrastructure to make our cities smart and investment attraction sites, remains.
• It becomes compelling to then also critically review systems in place to help realise the ideal.
• Tools and structures to serve as a governance and oversight on Project Management, which seems to be lacking to be considered to improve on this aspect moving forward and we rely on Research and Evalution units to advise.
• We are going to have to review mainly how projects are managed internally to reduce wastage, delays and implement only what is relevant to the cause.
• The current situation magnified the challenge of supply versus demand of water in the Province. The finalisation of the Master plan should be given all due attention.
• We will continue mobilising every cent and rand towards provision of alternative water supply sources like boreholes, water tank etc. while working on long-term solutions.
• Our resources have always been scarce and now even more stretched and left priorities competing with each other.
• With all of that said we still can draw valuable lessons from the pandemic that hit us so hard.
• The need to gear ourselves up with 4th industrial revolution that can save the department lots of money on travel, accommodation and hiring of venues for this or that gathering and most importantly time.
• Improved risk management and mitigation to ensure business continuity come what may
• Organisational efficiency and productivity should be come the new gospel now and beyond this crisis
• As we navigate through these unchattered waters of the pandemic, it is time for all of us to act in accordance with the injunction posed by John F Kennedy who said “ask not what the country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.”

Programme Director;

Head of Department, Mr Tubane;

Members of the Executive Management Committee;

Senior Managers;

Ladies and gentlemen;

All protocol observed

I would like to welcome all managers to this virtual strategic planning session, the first of its kind in our history as a department. They say that when you change the form, you are on your way to changing the substance. In the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, this holds very true. The form of this virtual session is determined by the novel coronavirus as much as the substance of the direction KZN Cogta will take in the immediate future to meet its constitutional mandate.

We are participating in this virtual Strategic Planning session to take stock of where we are as an organisation and to collectively decide the plan moving forward. In other words, we are here to conduct a detailed assessment of the readiness of Cogta to meet the challenges that lie ahead.

Background and context

The immediate challenge before us is the Covid-19 pandemic that continues to devastate our communities, our economy and, more pertinently for us at Cogta, our municipalities and traditional institutions. The pandemic has necessitated large-scale reprioritisation of state resources and this has resulted in significant reduction of our own budget for many of our service delivery-related activities that used to form part of our strategic planning in the past. As a result, we have already had to reformulate our Annual Performance Plan for 2020/2021 to reflect our new priorities and our new budgetary constraints.

The impact of these changes is truly far-reaching. We will be required to ensure that our municipalities continue to function despite their massive revenue shortfalls and we will need to continue to manage our infrastructure projects, particularly water-related projects, despite these budget cuts. We will be required to play a key role in restoring our municipalities and traditional institutions to their pre-pandemic levels of operation. We may also need to contend with possible delays in such important events as the 2021 local government elections.

Purpose of the session

The assessment we will conduct during this Strategic Planning session must therefore reflect these new realities. It must be comprehensive, honest and objective in order for us to be able to map the strategic way forward in the context of the new normal. What will be important in this assessment is for us to draw on best practices that we should replicate and worst practices that we should do our best avoid. For this Strategic Planning session to be a success, we therefore all need to ensure that we approach it with no pre-determined outcomes.

Our mandate here is to reflect on how our new priorities will find expression in our Strategic Plan as well as our Implementation Plan thereof. All our programmes, policies and resources across all business units will have to be directed in pursuit of our immediate, medium-term and long-term tasks. As we continue to fight the spread of the novel coronavirus and look beyond towards a post-Covid-19 local government landscape, we must not lose sight of our long-term vision to provide comprehensive support to all local governance institutions, such as municipalities and traditional leadership institutions, in order to make them sustainable.

This is a fundamental task for the department. The expectation, therefore, is that creating stable and sustainable local governance institutions will constitute the core of our strategy and this will be high up on the list of priorities of the department. If we fail to do so, then we would have failed the people of KZN in particular and South Africa in general. So, today we begin to reimagine our destiny for the foreseeable future and plan the journey conscious of our strengths and weaknesses. We need to look at possible opportunities and threats that lie ahead. As we do so, we need to look at how we can circumvent some of those threats and leverage the opportunities that are there.

A new future for Cogta

We are urged to imagine a new future for Cogta and the people of our province in a post-Civid-19 era: a new future where those we serve are our number one clients and to them Cogta is the number one go-to department when faced with challenges. Let us use this opportunity to refashion Cogta as a new vehicle that will deliver innovative solutions in resolving service delivery and local governance challenges and drive the agenda to grow South Africa together. I am confident that this new Cogta is the best vehicle for driving our municipalities and traditional institutions out of the current Covid-19 devastation towards a full recovery and a sustainable future beyond.

We must at this Strategic Planning session emerge with concrete strategies for our municipal support plans to ensure that we reach our intended destination of making the system of local government work better for our people. In a lot of what has unravelled in the local government space we, as Cogta, have been complicit through our action or inaction. Today we must make a clean break with the past. As a department, we cannot be aloof but we have to be on the ground in supporting the institutions we are constitutionally mandated to support and ensure that they perform.

Our support plans must respond to these challenges and we must be able to play our role and be frank if there are any obstacles. I think we are all observing the fact that we have entered a new era in consequence management in government: the public are not sparing us of their wrath as the people they have tasked with improving their lives. We want to be unequivocal in that we will also exercise consequence management against those not pulling their weight. This is a clarion call for all of us to do our work that we are paid to do and also to contribute to building our country.

On the financial side, the province is impacted by the constrained global economic environment due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the immediate implications are budget cuts and reprioritisation. This means that we have to continue doing our work effectively with fewer resources and managing them more effectively to get value for money. Our task is to ensure that people who contribute their taxes, rates and service charges get a return on their investments through high-quality public services they receive from their local government institutions. We have challenges related to Eskom debt, revenue collection, dysfunctional water schemes, poor operations and maintenance of municipal infrastructure. All of these need to be addressed here today.

New guiding principles for Cogta

As you contemplate our department’’s strategy during this virtual Strategic Planning session, I urge you to base all your inputs around the following pillars:　

•• Improvement in audit status of the department and a strategy for differentiated support to municipalities which is based on the currently available performance information

•• Alignment between available resources and our Strategic Plan and a clear linkage between all the relevant business units to form the basis of our new role in the post-Covid-19 local government landscape

•• Research and innovation to drive our development and growth as a department

•• Work in a business-oriented manner and always put people first in the context of Batho Pele principles, and

•• Instil a sense of working together and always strive for the best

Conclusion

Much preparation and planning has gone into this exercise for which we would like to thank the HOD, Mr Tubane, and the entire team Cogta. In order to give meaning to this Strategic Planning session, we must see active participation of all managers. Do not be timid to raise your point; there is no wrong answer but points can always be refined. Let us identify areas of challenges and our common approach for dealing with the lack of success. When you participate in this session, always think of the effect your ideas will have on the people on the ground.

I conclude these remarks by borrowing from the wise words of Khalil Gibran: “”Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are seared with scars.”” The current Covid-19 crisis is a source of immense suffering for individuals and institutions alike. But I have no doubt that we will all emerge, as individuals and society, from this crisis stronger and more determined to reach for new heights. Today’’s Strategic Planning session is the first bold step in this direction.

I thank you!