MUNICIPAL
NEWS PRINCE ALBERT LOCAL MUNICIPALITY From the mouth of Cllr. Magrietha Jaftha…. and Provincial Government to improve service delivery.
Honourable Mayor: Cllr. Magrietha Jaftha
First and foremost, I would like to thank the Heavenly Father and of course the community of Prince Albert who have once again bestowed their confidence in me by electing me as a ward councillor and subsequently ascending to the number one citizen of Prince Albert. After the Local Government Elections of 1 November 2021, no party won an outright majority to govern. A multi-party government was established and made a commitment that we will make this work for the advancement of our communities. I have made a commitment to build on the success of my predecessors, to build a Prince Albert that is characterised by high standard of living and service delivery. We will continuously strive towards a more integrated planning approach whereby we seamlessly integrate our Strategic Documents with those of National
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Municipal Focus
Access to basic services and the improvement of service delivery remains key, and innovative means to deliver services more effectively, efficiently and economically, are deemed essential. In order to achieve this, the community’s input and recommendations are of utmost importance. As always there are more needs identified within our communities than the municipality and government can provide for. Let me assure everyone that these needs are never forgotten, but that we continually strive through networking
I have made a commitment to build on the success of my predecessors, to build a Prince Albert that is characterised by high standard of living and service delivery. and the active seeking of investment partners, to address these needs. The role that government departments, the business sector, investors, interest groups and individuals play in meeting these needs can never be emphasized enough. The covid-19 pandemic, climate change and the current drought in the Western Cape and country has a negative impact on our municipality. This manifests in several ways, including unemployment and poverty, making it difficult for many residents
to pay for municipal services. We are proudly pro-poor and endeavour to accommodate the poorest in our communities without risking the financial sustainability of our municipal area. To support the struggling economy, Council has resolved to undertake in-house capital projects based on labour intensive practices, in order to create temporary jobs during these difficult times. We also focus on the economic and social development of our community, especially the creation of an enabling environment for economic growth. Good municipal infrastructure, service delivery and clean governance are pre-requisites to attracting investment and development within our municipal area. Our capital development programme reflects our commitment to infrastructure development and service delivery and we place a strong emphasis on good governance, especially financial management, performance management and compliance with laws and regulations. We are pleased with our audit outcomes of the past five years, where we obtained three (3) clean audits and two unqualified audits (with matters) outcomes, and we need to maintain and improve on these achievements. I am of the opinion that service delivery should not be compromised for clean audits, excellent service delivery should be a result of clean audits. Prince Albert Municipality is not immune to challenges, vandalism and theft is unfortunately also a growing problem in parts of the municipal
