“I want to congratulate Western Cape municipalities which received recognition for excellent performance in recent days,” Anton Bredell, Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning, said today.

Several Western Cape municipalities were recognised for excellence at the National Good Governance Awards, held at Gallagher Estate in Johannesburg as part of the Local Government Indaba, last night.

The West Coast District Municipality was presented with the Best-Run Municipality Award, supported by 14 consecutive clean audits and a 100% capital project expenditure record.

Breede Valley Municipality was recognised for a clean audit outcome for the 2023/24 financial year, clean audit outcomes for 10 or more consecutive years, and for maintaining funded budgets for 10 consecutive years.

Cape Winelands District Municipality received recognition for 11 consecutive clean audits and for maintaining sound, funded budgets.

At a separate event, the Municipal Performance Awards hosted yesterday by the South African Property Owners Association, Ratings Afrika and the Banking Association of South Africa, announced that the three top-performing municipalities in South Africa were all from the Western Cape. Swartland and Saldanha Bay shared the award as the top municipalities in South Africa, with Swellendam in second place and Hessequa coming in third. The City of Cape Town was recognised as the Best Metro in South Africa.

The Ratings Afrika index benchmarks municipal health using six key financial components to assess stability, sustainability and resilience. These include:

• A comprehensive measure of fiscal health, assessing a municipality’s ability to generate an operating surplus to fund services.
• Maintaining cash reserves to absorb shocks.
• Practising prudent borrowing and repayment.
• Applying disciplined and forward-looking budgeting.
• Maintaining affordable rates and tariffs.
• Investing in infrastructure to strengthen long-term, sustainable service delivery.

Minister Bredell said the importance of good financial management in a municipality cannot be overstated. “Financial management is the foundation from which all other aspects of local government are built. A clean audit does not mean there is no poverty, inequality, crime or unemployment. But it means the municipality used the money entrusted to it for the intended purpose and within the relevant law. Without this, you cannot begin to address the other challenges all municipalities in South Africa have to face.”

Contact:
Wouter Kriel
Spokesperson for Minister Anton Bredell
Western Cape Minister of Local Government, Environmental Affairs and Development Planning
Cell: 079 694 3085
E-mail: Wouter.kriel@westerncape.gov.za 

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