Johannesburg wins Vuna Award for Best Performing Metro in SA
STATEMENT BY CLR NANDI MAYATHULA-KHOZA, ACTING EXECUTIVE MAYOR OF JOHANNESBURG ON WINNING THE VUNA AWARDS FOR BEST PERFORMING METRO IN SOUTH AFRICA, MAYORAL PARLOUR, METRO CENTRE, BRAAMFONTEIN - JOHANNESBURG
Johannesburg is the best managed metro in South Africa – and that is now official. I am pleased to announce that the City has won the National Vuna Award for excellence in service delivery. Together with the Award comes a R2 million first prize.
The Vuna Awards are an initiative of the Department of Provincial and Local Government in partnership with the Development Bank of Southern Africa, the SA Local Government Association (SALGA) and the National Productivity Institute.
In addition to the overall Vuna Awards, Johannesburg also received special awards in the key performance areas for Good Governance and Institutional Transformation.
The Vuna Award is recognition of the work done in the City over the past six years of democratic local governance. It is a well deserved accolade not only for the Mayoral Committee and the senior management but for each and every employee of the City who have made his or her unique contribution to transform our City.
It also affirms the role played by residents of Johannesburg and the local business community who have inspired us to raise our levels of service delivery and to strive continuously for even better performance.
This award is a clear indication to us that we are on the right track in our efforts to transform Johannesburg into a world class, African City.
Municipalities entered the contest at provincial level and competed for awards in the best Metro, District and Local Municipalities categories. Johannesburg first won the provincial Vuna and then represented Gauteng in the national competition.
An independent panel of judges evaluated the performance of each municipality on the basis of five key performance areas namely service delivery, local economic development, municipal transformation and institutional development, financial viability and good governance.
Vuna is the Nguni word meaning “harvest together.” The awards celebrate those who are helping to sow the seeds of development and to ensure a good harvest for the people of South Africa. The specific objectives of the awards are to:
Promote commitment to service delivery;
Motivate municipalities to enhance their performance and productivity;
Promote a culture of performance management and benchmarking;
Highlight municipal best practices and experience;
Find creative ways of enhancing municipal viability;
Meet stakeholder expectations and statutory obligations; and
Promote learning and sharing of best practices amongst and between municipalities.
The fact that the City has received high marks in the areas of institutional transformation and good governance is particularly pleasing in that it recognises the significant turnaround that has been achieved especially since the local government elections in March 2006. Following the poll we introduced a completely new structure of City governance to improve the political-administrative interface and overall efficiency.
Amongst others we integrated the Office of the Executive Mayor and that of the City Manager, established 13 core departments, provided executive authority to the Members of the Mayoral Committee and strengthened the oversight role played by Council.
We rationalised the number of regions in the City and strengthened their capacity to play a more effective role in the areas of urban management, service delivery co-ordination and development planning.
We have also introduced meaningful measures to strengthen the ward system and to empower ward councillors and ward committees to hold the City administration accountable.
In our submission to the Vuna Panel we listed a number of key milestones achieved by the City, which, I am convinced, influenced the decision to make the award in favour of Johannesburg.
Both investors and residents of Johannesburg publicly demonstrated their confidence in the City's future through their participation in the five municipal bonds we have issued since April 2004.
In the past 18 months two of the most respected global rating agencies, Fitch Ratings and CA Ratings, have substantially upgraded our ratings and we now find ourselves in the A plus range.
Operation Gcin'amanzi our flagship programme to improve service delivery, reduce unaccounted for water and improve revenue collection has already delivered excellent results. Since its introduction in 2004 we have already saved the City over 38 000 billion litres of water to the value of R109 million. 63 000 prepayment meters have been installed, and more than 11 500 jobs have been created. The project is showing a return on investment of 30% after 30 months.
In the 2006/07 financial year a total of 17 334 new households were provided with basic water services and 12 430 with sanitation. We are consistently broadening access to essential basic services reaching more than 90% of City households now with water and close on 82% with sanitation.
Over the past two years, the City has spent more than R1, 65 billion in capital expenditure on the power grid. Over 95% of this money has been spent on network upgrades. In this period outages on the network have decreased significantly, from 144 High Voltage outages and 1340 Medium Voltage outages in 2005 to 81 High Voltage and 1184 Medium Voltage outages in 2006/07.
We launched the City Greening Programme that seeks to plant more than 200 000 trees before 2010, green every soccer field in every township, build more regional parks especially in the South, rehabilitate the Klipriver catchment area and establish nurseries.
We are making headway with Inner City Regeneration by mobilising the numerous stakeholders in the Inner City to participate in rejuvenating the CBD. I believe that our ability to involve stakeholders through sectoral summits and imbizos has a very positive impact on the successes we are achieving in the City.
I would also like to touch on some of the awards that the City received during the course of this year. In the last few weeks we have been privileged to be awarded the following accolades from different institutions and organisations:
Health Department received the following awards:
1st prize for Zondi Clinic for best innovation and upgrading of clinics in Gauteng
2nd prize in terms of TB curate in Gauteng
Transporation (JRA): The June 16 Trail received an award from Mail & Guardian for the Best Enterprise Development
Joburg Innovation and Knowledge Exchange (JIKE) received the following prizes:
First Prize: 2007 Innovative use of information communication and Technology for effective Service Delivery for the Neuron software project initiated by Joburg Water.
First Prize: 2007 Partnerships with other African governments for the Joburg-Addis Ababa Partnership programme
Environment Department (City Parks) received a number of awards award from LIVCON (in London):
(1) 2010 Greening Soweto Legacy Project
(2) Dorothy Nyembe Environmental Education Centre in Dobsonville,
(3) Thokoza Park/Moroka Dam Wetlands Rehabilitation Project
(4) The Diepsloot Memorial Cemetery won a silver award
(5) Johannesburg City Parks obtained a bronze award for its Environmental Management Strategy.
2010 received the Best Project in Civil Engineering and Designing Category from Crown Publishers.
This suggests that we must be doing something right in the City of Johannesburg.
Nevertheless we unreservedly believe that these awards are truly the ultimate acknowledgement for the hard work this City has done.
Thank you
For Enquiries Contact:
Nkhensani Makhobela
Spokesperson for the Executive Mayor
City of Johannesburg
Tel: +27 11 407 7524
Mobile: 082 461 7075
