The total number of households in Polokwane Municipality’s area of jurisdiction increased from 130 361 in 2007 to 178 001 in 2011 and stood at 239 116 in 2016. The urban population increased by 5% per year, while the rural population increased by 1,6% per year, mainly due to migration.
Those were some of the interesting facts mentioned by Municipal Manager Dikgape Makobe when he presented the municipality’s Draft Annual Report for the 2017/18 financial year at a public participation presentation at the new Peter Mokaba Stadium on Tuesday. Makobe quoted StatsSA’s 2016 survey, saying that the municipality’s population is 797 127, with 40% of the population living in the Polokwane/Seshego urban complex.
Makobe said that the municipality’s strategic objectives for 2017/18 were to improve provision of basic and environmental services in a sustainable way, to enhance financial viability and improved financial management, to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of municipal administration, to improve community confidence in the system of local government and finally to enhance increased economic growth. The municipality’s 2030 Smart City vision focuses on six pillars, being Smart Economy, Smart Environment, Smart Governance, Smart Living, Smart Mobility and Smart People.
The report alluded to a number of infrastructure projects that proceeded during the financial year and some of which will be rolled over during the current financial year. A major project was the replacement of asbestos cement water pipes on which R252,3 million was spent. An amount of R83,7 million was spent on the regional waste water treatment plant, while R7,6 million was spent on provision of electricity and approximately R100 million on roads and stormwater.
The municipality received qualified audit opinions from the Auditor-General (AG) for the last two financial years and according to the report, it was mainly due to a non-responsive financial system that failed to address revenue billing matters and failed to detect duplicate transactions. “The municipality has already initiated a solid drive to address all the AG issues,” the report concluded.
Story & photos: BARRY VILJOEN
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