Buffalo City Metro (BCM) mayor Xola Pakati has left for Gävle municipality in Sweden, along with six other senior councillors and metro managers.
The metro has a twinning agreement with the Swedish municipality, while BCM has similar partnerships with Lower Saxony in Germany – and another municipality in China.
But are ratepayers getting any value for money for these trips which are undertaken at least twice a year?
BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi believes they do.
Cindi said at the centre of the partnerships BCM has with overseas counterparts such as Gävle Municipality, was to share best practices and areas of expertise unique to the partners involved.
He said BCM benefited more with these partnerships because they were in a “Third World” country while its partners were “First World”.
Even the official opposition, the DA, has lauded Buffalo City’s twinning deals with the DA’s international relations councillor, Dinesh Vallabh, singing the praises of the Swedish partnership.
Said Vallabh: “I believe it is a good thing for our city to partner with other cities from around the world as these twinning agreements such as the one with the Swedish city work well in our favour.
“However, it is important to maintain cooperation and stick to the terms of contracts and agreements of these partnerships.”
Together with the Swedish counterpart, BCM was learning specialised skills in renewable energy, Cindi said.
Also, BCM being a metro marred by bumpy, potholed roads was learning from its international partnerships on how best it could fix its bad roads. Cindi said BCM needed to go beyond these and profile itself as a unique city among other cities in South Africa.
“We have the potential to do more. We are getting value for money but it can be much more than what it is at the moment,” he said.
“And that will happen when we as Buffalo City come to a conclusion as to what are we selling, what in business is called a unique proposition.
“We sometimes lack in finding that thing that makes us unique.
“For instance we have a fossilised footprint in Nahoon which is alleged to be the oldest ever found on earth, but we are not selling that.”
Cindi was unable to tell how much the municipality was spending on these international trips and how much they made in return.
“However, you can only measure that by the number of tourists who visit our city after they have gone there and came back,” he added.
Mayor jets off to Sweden -Delegation to share areas of expertise
The metro has a twinning agreement with the Swedish municipality, while BCM has similar partnerships with Lower Saxony in Germany – and another municipality in China.
But are ratepayers getting any value for money for these trips which are undertaken at least twice a year?
BCM spokesman Sibusiso Cindi believes they do.
Cindi said at the centre of the partnerships BCM has with overseas counterparts such as Gävle Municipality, was to share best practices and areas of expertise unique to the partners involved.
He said BCM benefited more with these partnerships because they were in a “Third World” country while its partners were “First World”.
Even the official opposition, the DA, has lauded Buffalo City’s twinning deals with the DA’s international relations councillor, Dinesh Vallabh, singing the praises of the Swedish partnership.
Said Vallabh: “I believe it is a good thing for our city to partner with other cities from around the world as these twinning agreements such as the one with the Swedish city work well in our favour.
“However, it is important to maintain cooperation and stick to the terms of contracts and agreements of these partnerships.”
Together with the Swedish counterpart, BCM was learning specialised skills in renewable energy, Cindi said.
Also, BCM being a metro marred by bumpy, potholed roads was learning from its international partnerships on how best it could fix its bad roads. Cindi said BCM needed to go beyond these and profile itself as a unique city among other cities in South Africa.
“We have the potential to do more. We are getting value for money but it can be much more than what it is at the moment,” he said.
“And that will happen when we as Buffalo City come to a conclusion as to what are we selling, what in business is called a unique proposition.
“We sometimes lack in finding that thing that makes us unique.
“For instance we have a fossilised footprint in Nahoon which is alleged to be the oldest ever found on earth, but we are not selling that.”
Cindi was unable to tell how much the municipality was spending on these international trips and how much they made in return.
“However, you can only measure that by the number of tourists who visit our city after they have gone there and came back,” he added.
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