Exco strategy on course

The Executive Council (Exco) resolved during its last meeting of the year held recently that the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (Coghsta) should declare an emergency on the breakout of typhoid in the Tswaing area in Fetakgomo-Greater Tubatse Local Municipality and support the Sekhukhune District Municipality to deal with the situation.
The decision follows reports that more than 60 children had been hospitalised at the end of November while two of them died after consuming water from a canal in the Sekhukhune district. Provincial Government Spokesperson Phuti Seloba in a statement said the meeting was to examine and approve programmes of action of different clusters and to deliberate on progress departments have made in delivering services to residents.
The council directed that the National Housing Department should be invited to a meeting with Premier Stan Mathabatha, Provincial Treasury MEC Rob Tooley and Coghsta MEC Jerry Ndou, as well as heads of departments, to discuss the envisaged withdrawal of R150 million housing grant allocation and challenges confronting the sector leading to poor performance of service providers.
The Department of Transport and Community Safety was mandated to review the crime reduction strategy and table the revised version at the 2018 February Exco Lekgotla, stated Seloba. He said the council resolved that a team of five officials led by Economic Development, Environment and Tourism (Ledet) and comprised of officials from the entity, Limpopo Economic Development Agency, Provincial Treasury and the Department of Public Works, Roads and Infrastructure should be constituted to draw up a plan on projects that will utilise the R149 million grant allocation for the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone.
Seloba emphasised that all government departments were ordered to spend their infrastructure grants, noting the envisaged National Budget cuts for 2018/19 which will impact negatively on the incomplete grant projects with no roll-overs anticipated.
The council has approved the 2016/17 Municipal Audit report and recommended that Provincial Treasury and Coghsta should create a hub to assist municipalities on financial matters inclusive of audit processes and also resolved that the hub should be comprised of at least four Accountants and its establishment should be budgeted to commence functioning in the 2018/19 financial year, he said. He further outlined that the council resolved that municipalities with a regression of audit outcomes – those with disclaimers and adverse audit outcomes and those with qualified audit opinions should undertake an investigation on the causes of such negative audit outcomes and a report o should be presented to the council.

Story: ENDY SENYATSI
>>endy@observer.co.za