By Nangamso Mabindla

Winning the Vuna award for being the best municipality in the Eastern Cape would boost Buffalo City's bid to become a metro, Executive Mayor Sindisile Maclean said yesterday.

Buffalo City Municipality won the Vuna award on Monday, walking away the R750 000 first prize. Councillor Maclean said this money would be ploughed back into the work of the municipality to improve service delivery to its people.

The mayor believed winning the Vuna award would accelerate the city's bid to become a Metro. "I think this win is going to prove we are now ready to be a Metro. Our staff has proven that they can serve the public with the resources they have. You just have to wonder then how good they'd really be with the resources of a Metro," Councillor Maclean said.

Buffalo City Manager Mxolisi Tsika said the award was an acknowledgement that the municipality was on the right track.

Commitment
"It proves that our commitment to developing a municipality that creates opportunities for all and cares for those less fortunate than us is not only a noble endeavor, but also an administrative challenge from which we will not shy away," he said.

The Vuna awards were aimed at identifying the best performing municipalities in South Africa and encouraging excellent service delivery.

Buffalo City would build on the acknowledgement and empower staff to increase efficiency. Tsika said the administrative and political sides of Buffalo City would discuss ways to use the prize money for the benefit of the staff and citizens next week. Tsika said the money was important in the realisation of the city's long-term vision that included four key elements:

• The building of a productive city;
• Maintaining a well-governed city;
• Ensuring that it was an inclusive city; and
• Building capacity to ensure it was a sustainable city.

Tsika outlined some developments that were taking place in the city in an attempt to be prepared for the future and meet its responsibilities. "We have included a revitalization programme in our IDP (Integrated Development Programme) that aims to find solutions to our challenges such as poverty, unemployment and low economic growth."

Revitalisation
The revitalisation programme was also designed "to speed up our transformation and enable us to bridge the gap between city aspirations and our limited capability within the municipal organisation", he said.

Tsika said the challenges the city faced were to fight HIV/Aids and build a sustainable city in which all who were to come in the future could make use of the resources.

"The Water Services Development Plan, the Transport Plan, the Waste Management Plan and the Spatial Development Framework are all big steps already taken with our partners in ensuring that our children inherit a safe and well-managed environment," said Tsika.