The KwaZulu-Natal Municipal Excellence awards results

Estimated reading time: 8 minutes

The impact of positive municipal management was acknowledged on Tuesday night, 22 November 2022, during the KwaZulu-Natal Municipal Excellence Awards.

Held at the DLI Hall in Durban, the KZN MEC For Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (KZN COGTA) Sihle Zikalala said one of the focal points of the awards ceremony was to celebrate the value of professional management and to recognise impactful projects that have significantly improved the quality of life of the people of KwaZulu-Natal.

“As you would know, these Provincial Municipal Excellence Awards attract entries from all our municipalities and also provide space for the public to participate in choosing winners,” said the MEC.

Understanding that local government is the coalface of service delivery, Zikalala pointed out that the sixth administration under President Cyril Ramaphosa, has taken a particular interest and renewed focus to reduce bottlenecks to the delivery of basic services by introducing the District Development Model (DDM). The DDM brings together all spheres of government under the ONE-PLAN-ONE BUDGET framework to improve coordination and accelerate service delivery.

In this regard, the MEC emphasised that the current Provincial Government identified as its first priority the improvement of the delivery of basic services, in particular water.

“The verdict is still out there in the remaining two years of this administration on how far we have succeeded to turn our municipalities around and improving the provision of services as we committed in 2019. We cannot, however, ignore the important work that KZN CoGTA and our municipalities are doing to attend to the water challenges through the implementation of the KwaZulu-Natal Water Master Plan,” he said.

Moving along, MEC Zikalala highlighted the categories that various municipalities were recognised for at the event:

Best Performing Ward Committees in terms of functionality in the 2021/22 financial year

This category recognises an outstanding Ward Committee that has a record of consultation mechanisms with its community. Here we are paying attention to evidence of an effective public participation programme.

Zikalala pointed out that the Provincial Government could attest that in those municipalities where communities are involved in the life of a municipality, where there was a two-way communication process, and where the leadership of municipalities regularly consult, service delivery protests are reduced and trust is restored in local government.

The KZN municipality that secured the win for this category was Greater Kokstad Municipality Ward 1, which received a gold trophy and certificate.

Best managed electricity project by a municipality

The winning municipalities in this category were able to accomplish electricity connections to households within a specified time and within the allocated budget, thus changing people’s lives.

These municipalities were rewarded for efficiency in accelerating basic service delivery to very needy communities.

The impact of electrification (notwithstanding load shedding) has clearly resulted in improved socio-economic conditions where households were able to connect to modern technologies such as computers and smartphones.

Matubatuba Municipality’s Ward 17 and Ward 18, as well as Ubuhlebezwe Municipality Ward 5 secured a gold trophy and certificate for this category.

Best Recycling Project managed and supported by a municipality

With the emergency of climate change and its disastrous effects on humanity and in KwaZulu-Natal, Zikalala stressed that one could not overemphasise the need to protect the environment from pollution.

The category on recycling recognises those municipalities which have responded to the call to support the waste recycling culture. Through it, we wish to encourage many more municipalities to offer dedicated support to individuals and SMMEs that are working with waste, helping clean our environment, and supporting green economy initiatives.

Newcastle Municipality won in the category, securing a gold trophy and certificate, with Umlazi Municipality coming in second place.

Best Managed Landfill Site

This category of Best Managed Landfill Site, therefore, seeks to reward those municipalities that have well-run and functional landfill sites. Compliance would include, for instance, that the Landfill facility is licensed, is fenced, and has an Operational Plan.

The winners for this division, each securing a gold trophy, are as follows:

• Ethekwini Metro– Marianhill Landfill Site
• King Cetshwayo District Municipality – King Cetshwayo Landfill Site
• Greater Kokstad Municipality – Kransfontein Landfill Site
• Umuziwabantu Municipality – Harding Landfill site – Gold Trophy and Certificate

Best Implemented Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan (SDBIP)

Winners in the category would have achieved at least 95% of the targets that were set for the previous financial year.

The winning municipalities received Clean Audit opinions on Performance Information. Quarterly performance reports submitted to Oversight structures on time. Also, there’s evidence of Improved Audit Opinion on Annual Financial Statements.

Ubuhlebezwe Municipality secured the coveted first place, with 97%, closely followed by the Ray Nkonyeni Municipality in second place after obtaining a score of 96%.

Best Developed Integrated Development Plan (IDP) for the 2021/22 Financial Year

This category rewards municipalities which achieve no less than 85% in the IDP scoring. The criteria utilised for the determination of the Best Developed IDP are the Credible IDP assessment criteria which are applied in the MEC’s IDP assessment process. 

“We again wish to encourage municipalities to ensure that all stakeholders, including our traditional leaders and communities themselves, are involved in the crafting of IDPs so that they can feel a sense of ownership and be in a position to effectively monitor their implementation.”

First place in this category went to uMhlathuze Municipality after its IDP scored 88,3%. Second place went to the uThukela District Municipality which scored 86,83 % with its IDP.

Clean Audit Opinions

The category of Clean Audit Opinions cherishes municipalities that have achieved Clean Audits in the 2020/21 audit year.

Municipalities that have achieved clean audits have been found by the AG to possess these attributes:

• Its financial statements and performance report give a transparent and credible account of its finances and its performance against the targets that had been set. In other words, these accountability reports present a reliable picture of the municipality’s performance.
• The municipality complied with the important legislation that applies to it and, where transgressions did occur, they were rare or not material.

uMhlathuze Municipality clinched the win in this division, but it should be noted that both Okhahlamba (Bergville) Municipality and King Cetshwayo District Municipality won Special Gold Trophies and Certificates for their clean audits.

Best and sustained sound Financial Management

The MEC stated that with these awards, the Provincial Government sought to reward municipalities with the best and most sustained financial management and viability.

“As KZN CoGTA, we remain committed to offering extra and skilled personnel to support to struggling municipalities to turn their finances around,” said Zikalala.

Among others, the criteria include:

• Positive Audit Outcomes (either a Clean or Unqualified with matter opinions) for the 2020/21 audit year.
• Funded budget status for the 2021/22 Financial Year
• Cash coverage ratio – within the Treasury Norm of 1 – 3 months
• Debtors’ collection rate – within the Treasury Norm of 95% revenue annual collection

In no particular order, the following municipalities each secured themselves a silver trophy for this division:

• Mkhambathini Municipality
• Umlalazi Municipality
• Kwadukuza Municipality
• Ilembe District Municipality
• Mandeni Municipality

Allocation and spending on the Repairs and Maintenance (O&M) budget

This important category rewards municipalities that have budgeted more than the Treasury Norm of 8% on repairs and maintenance based on Property, Plant and Equipment (PPE) for the 2021/22 financial year and had spent the R&M budget.

The awards ceremony saw two municipalities receiving Gold trophies and a R500 000 prize grant to be spent on O&M.

• Mkhambathini Municipality whose O&M Budget was 9% in the 2021/22 financial year.
• Umhlathuze Municipality after sporting an O&M budget of 12% in the 2021/22 financial year.

Winner of the Night

This is a municipality with governance structures which are functional. In this municipality, there is clear evidence that Ward Committees and Municipal Rapid Response Teams are functional.

A number of our municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal and throughout the country are showing poor financial results and no municipality can be sustainable with poor financial audit outcomes. This is one of those municipalities that provide hope. As such, we can reveal that the “Winner of the Night” would have:

• Received positive audit outcomes on Performance Information in the 2020/21 audit year.
• Passed funded budgets for the 2021/22 Financial Year.
• Revenue collection within the Treasury Norm of 95%.
• No Eskom or Water Board debt.

The win here went to the Greater Kokstad Local Municipality and was awarded a special gold trophy, a certificate, and a R1 million prize grant.

According to CoGTA, this Municipality is the only municipality that received awards under four categories, namely:

• Best performing ward committee for the 2022/2023 financial year.
• Best Managed land-fill site.
• Best developed IDP for the 2021/2022 financial year.
• Municipality obtaining positive audit outcome 2020/2021 financial year

What is your take on this? Let us know in the comment section below.