By Nangamso Mabindla

Buffalo City, representing the Eastern Cape at the national Vuna Awards to be held in Johannesburg tonight, is ready to show South Africa just why it is the best municipality in the province.

Speaking ahead of tonight's awards function, Matthew Mooneiya, the Executive Mayor's strategic adviser, said: "We are satisfied with our preparations. We are going to show the rest of South Africa we in Buffalo City are serious about serving our citizens."

The municipality won the inaugural provincial Vuna Award in October. The aim of the awards is to promote creative and innovative municipal service delivery, identify and support poorly performing municipalities, build confidence in municipalities, and improve the image of local government.

The Buffalo City delegation that will attend the awards' evening included the Mayor Sindisile Maclean, City Manager Mxolisi Tsika, Buffalo City Communications Manager Darby Gounden and Director of Corporate Services Amanda Mangwentshu and Moonieya.

It was not imperative the city won the national award, said Moonieya. "The fact that we will be there to represent the province shows we are recognised as a performing municipality."

Councillor Maclean was cautious ahead of tonight's presentation, since the city was competing against some of the best municipalities in South Africa.

"I can make this promise to our citizens, though: we have done what we needed to do and it's now up to the judges to decided if our best was good enough."

Buffalo City had recorded "a moving video depicting our commitment to deliver for our people", said the mayor, adding that much of the delivery was achieved with a limited budget. "The most important thing from these awards is recognition, and the fact that we will be competing at the highest level."

The city would also benefit from interacting with other municipalities and would see where it could make improvements in order to be among the top performing municipalities in South Africa.

The Vuna Awards are an initiative of the Department of Provincial and Local Government, the National Productivity Institute, the South African Local Government Association and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.

The winner of the national award will walk away with R3-million in prize money.