By Nangamso Mabindla
20 August 2004

A 10-MEMBER delegation from the city of Penshawar in the north-west frontier province of Pakistan visited Buffalo City on Friday 20 August to observe progress made by local government in South Africa.

The delegation, led by Penshawar deputy mayor Muhammad Iqbal Khalil, also visited the Johannesburg, Tshwane and Cape Town metropoles.

Welcoming the guests, acting City manager Amanda Magwentshu said she was happy the Pakistani delegation had shown an interest in Buffalo City. "We will show you how the City works and how we've developed local government."

Buffalo City has 880 000 residents and an annual budget of R1.6-billion.

"Since we're a people-centred municipality, our budget has to yield to the needs of our people. We're the closest to the people and therefore we need to attend to their main concerns," she said.

The municipality involved communities in the budget preparation through public participation in their annual Integrated Development Plan reviews, she explained.

The Integrated Development Plan (IDP), Budget Integration and Performance Management general manager Quinton Williams said the IDP was also aimed at overcoming the backlog caused by apartheid.

"We need to try and develop the under-developed areas in Buffalo City," he added. "With our review, people tell us their concerns. In turn, we try and prioritise and allocate funds for those concerns."

Although the City, according to Williams, had been successful with its reviews, there were challenges the municipality needed to tackle, which would be discussed in next year's IDP public participation meetings.

Commenting on what the delegation had seen, Peshawar Deputy Mayou Khallil said he was impressed with the progress local government has made.

"Considering that it's new, we're impressed with what the municipalities have to offer. Obviously there are a lot of achievements and challenges, but overall they can only go from strength to strength," he said.

"We're really happy that we came here; we've learned a lot and hopefully we can use some of that knowledge in Pakistan," he added.