By Nangamso Mabindla
23 February 2004

THE first baby steps in transforming local government have become giant strides, says Sakhumzi Somyo, the executive mayor of the Amatole District Municipality, which heads up eight local municipalities - including Buffalo City.

Councillor Somyo was delivering his state of the district address in celebration of 10 years of freedom at the East London City Hall on Friday. "Despite the leaps and strides made in transforming local government, there are still many hurdles in front of us," Somyo said.

But, he said, regardless of the many challenges ahead, "we are now in a better position - having put the basics in place".

"We now need to consolidate our efforts and improve our core responsibility: service delivery to our many communities," Councillor Somyo said.

The event was attended by Buffalo City Executive Mayor Sindisile Maclean, members of local government and delegates from the religious community.

Councillor Somyo said the district municipality had had a clean, unqualified audit report for four consecutive years.

"Despite this achievement, we cannot count ourselves 100% successful if we don't assist our local municipalities in achieving the same goal."

To assist in this effort, the Amatole District Municipality had set up the Chief Financial Officer's Forum, which was addressing backlogs and building the capacity of local municipalities.

Somyo said he was impressed with the economic growth of the district.

In 1995/1996 financial year, the district council - the forerunner of the Amatole District Municipality - had an income of R33-million in levy collection, he said. This has increased to a projected R102-million income in levies for the 2003/4 financial year.

Somyo said he looked forward to improving local government in his district. "With one of our municipalities, Buffalo City, voted the best in the country, things can only get better."

Commenting on Somyo's speech, Buffalo City Deputy Executive Mayor Des Halley said he was pleased that local government had made such strides in a young democracy.

"I would also like to take this opportunity to say that Buffalo City and the other seven municipalities under the Amatole District Municipality will be working hand-in-hand to achieve the best possible results when it comes to local government," Halley said.