MPUMALANGA COGTA
POLICY AND BUDGET SPEECH SUMMARY EC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in Mpumalanga, Ms BP Shiba tabled the Department’s Policy and Budget Speech in June this year, focusing on service delivery improvement, support for municipalities and the traditional leadership in Mpumalanga. The service delivery improvement covers the period between 2016 and 2019, and the support mechanisms will be implemented in the 2021-22 financial year. The summary of the speech is as follows: • •
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The number of households with access to water increased from 1 090 892 to 1 134 864. The number of households with access to flush toilets(sanitation) increased from 607 082 to 848 484 in the same period. Access to electricity was increased from 1 123 038 to 1 200 132 for the last five years. The number of households with access to waste removal declined from 594 892 to 499 500. As a remedy, the Municipal Infrastructure Grant(MIG) framework has been revised to allow municipalities to procure solid waste removal trucks through their MIG allocation to improve access to refuse removal. MEC Busisiwe Shiba
For water intervention, MEC Shiba stated the following: •
Aging and dilapidated infrastructure will be prioritized and addressed. In addition, the exponential sprawling of legal and illegal settlements, as well as lack of budget allocation of maintenance infrastructure, will be given attention.
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In the MIG expenditure R986 million was prioritized for water and sanitation.
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Partnering with the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA), the Department of Water and Sanitation, and the DBSA supported PPMU in the Department, the challenges of water and sanitation will be reduced.
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The Rand Water Board is also being considered to improve the operations and maintenance of our Treatment Plants and to train personnel controllers to meet the standards and classification grading.
MEC Shiba highlighted a good expenditure of the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) by the majority of municipalities in Mpumalanga, giving hope that infrastructure challenges will be addressed, for the improvement of service delivery.
Through the support of the DBSA, the Department will initiate processes of reviewing Spatial Development Frameworks (SDFs) of Nkangala, Thembisile Hani, Dr JS Moroka, Victor Khanye, Emalahleni, and Emakhazeni municipalities.
Many municipalities were able to spend 100% of their MIG expenditure with an exciting 83% performance in this regard. However, the Department will assist Dipaleseng, Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme and Govan Mbeki as severely affected municipalities.
The Department has completed a Spatial Land Use Management for the Lekwa Municipality and also committed to supporting the Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, Dipaliseng, and Bushbuckridge municipalities to finalize their land use scheme as required by SPLUMA.
Municipal Focus
