WE should applaud the mayor and municipal management team of the Sarah Baartman District Municipality for achieving the seemingly impossible task of a squeaky clean audit report from the auditor-general for two successive financial years.
ANC mayor Khunjuzwa Kekana, who was voted best mayor in the Eastern Cape in 2013, attributed these stellar audit outcomes to hard work.
It would serve bigger metros – with more complex budgets and hence more to pilfer from political interferers whose only interest is a slice of the tender pie – to really take heed of what this mayor Kekana has to say about how she and her team achieved a clean bill of health.
She said: “The Sarah Baartman District Municipality’s political and administrative environment is sound and measures are in place to provide adequate oversight.”
Direct translation: The political and official leadership work as a team to ensure that citizens are served and that no politician or businessman connected to a politician, however influential, is able to meddle with the management and disbursement of funds intended for service deliver y.
The political leadership and skilled officials work closely together to achieve common goals.
Take another of Kekana’s comments: “Effective internal controls and good governance are among our top priorities.”
Translation: The municipal manager Ted Pillay and the chief financial officer Danie de Lange – who has occupied the position for more than 10 years – have been able to performance-manage municipal officials and set goals and standards for them.
A culture of hard work and service permeates the entire district. This is achieved not through grandstanding but hands-on leadership.
The men who are contending to run the Nelson Mandela Bay metro after the votes in next year’s local government elections are counted, could definitely learn a lesson or two from the woman who is at the helm of the Sarah Baartman district.
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