A crucial final meeting of the current Buffalo City Metro before a new council takes office next month, ran into unexpected snags yesterday when a quorum could not be attained to continue business.
The approval of a reviewed policy for councillors and delivery performances of departments were among the issues which should have been addressed.
Due to the absence of many councillors and traditional leaders, the meeting had to be adjourned several times by Speaker Zoliswa Matana, as it did not have the required quorum of 51 councillors.
Matana initially had to beg councillors to settle down so the meeting could commence as “election campaigns are waiting for us”.
At the start of the meeting, which eventually collapsed due to lack of quorum, outgoing executive mayor Alfred Mtsi, tabled the statement of financial performance and implementation of the 2015-16 budget for the period that ended last month.
The report received mixed reactions from other councillors, with the supply chain management unit highlighted as the problematic area for the metro.
The report stated that the overall service delivery performance of the metro had declined by 4% compared to the previous quarter. The overall performance of the organisation was sitting at 58%.
A gloomy picture of poor performance within some departments was revealed in the report.
The health, public safety and emergency service department was the worst-performer, achieving only 10% of its overall fourth quarter performance targets.
The municipal services department followed with 22%, human settlement achieved 40% while corporate services achieved 43%.
The only good performing departments in the metro were reportedly the infrastructure department with an impressive 88%, executive support services followed with 86% and office of the chief financial officer department stood at 78%. At 71% was the development and spatial planning department, and the economic development agencies departments were at 67%.
“It worries me because now we have done five years (and) since 2011 BCM has never achieved a 100% performance. It’s not an excuse. We are supposed to perform 100%. The reasons for not performing 100% are not known to us,” COPE’s councillor Khayalandile Twalingca said.
DA councillor Terence Fritz blasted the metro for failing to appoint staff members while there were constant complaints of a shortage of staff in a number of departments.
An irate chief whip, Mzwandile Vaaiboom, raised concerns about the supply chain unit which was always mentioned in the auditor-general’s annual reports that lambasted the metro for irregular expenditure, among other things.
Admitting that there was a huge problem in the unit, Mtsi said the metro needed a lasting remedy for the unit. — mamelag@dispatch.co.za
BCM stop-start council meeting called off
The approval of a reviewed policy for councillors and delivery performances of departments were among the issues which should have been addressed.
Due to the absence of many councillors and traditional leaders, the meeting had to be adjourned several times by Speaker Zoliswa Matana, as it did not have the required quorum of 51 councillors.
Matana initially had to beg councillors to settle down so the meeting could commence as “election campaigns are waiting for us”.
At the start of the meeting, which eventually collapsed due to lack of quorum, outgoing executive mayor Alfred Mtsi, tabled the statement of financial performance and implementation of the 2015-16 budget for the period that ended last month.
The report received mixed reactions from other councillors, with the supply chain management unit highlighted as the problematic area for the metro.
The report stated that the overall service delivery performance of the metro had declined by 4% compared to the previous quarter. The overall performance of the organisation was sitting at 58%.
A gloomy picture of poor performance within some departments was revealed in the report.
The health, public safety and emergency service department was the worst-performer, achieving only 10% of its overall fourth quarter performance targets.
The municipal services department followed with 22%, human settlement achieved 40% while corporate services achieved 43%.
The only good performing departments in the metro were reportedly the infrastructure department with an impressive 88%, executive support services followed with 86% and office of the chief financial officer department stood at 78%. At 71% was the development and spatial planning department, and the economic development agencies departments were at 67%.
“It worries me because now we have done five years (and) since 2011 BCM has never achieved a 100% performance. It’s not an excuse. We are supposed to perform 100%. The reasons for not performing 100% are not known to us,” COPE’s councillor Khayalandile Twalingca said.
DA councillor Terence Fritz blasted the metro for failing to appoint staff members while there were constant complaints of a shortage of staff in a number of departments.
An irate chief whip, Mzwandile Vaaiboom, raised concerns about the supply chain unit which was always mentioned in the auditor-general’s annual reports that lambasted the metro for irregular expenditure, among other things.
Admitting that there was a huge problem in the unit, Mtsi said the metro needed a lasting remedy for the unit. — mamelag@dispatch.co.za
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