By Nangamso Mabindla
5 December 2006

CITY staff have been urged to rekindle the award-winning spirit that resulted in the city being voted the best in the country in 2003.

In that year Buffalo City was voted the cleanest municipality in the province and it scooped the provincial and national Vuna Awards for being the best run city in the country.

Gaster Sharpley, the new Buffalo City municipal manager, said: "When I attended the provincial Vuna Awards last week and saw Makana Municipality (Grahamstown) winning the award, I thought we also needed to step up our game and improve service delivery."

He was speaking to staff at the East London City Hall on Monday, 4 December.

Sharpley said that during his five-year term he would concentrate on motivating the staff to be loyal to the City and the customers they served. "Our customers need to have complete confidence in us and change the perception they have of the municipality. I would like to urge all of us here to work very hard so that our people benefit."

Turning his attention to how he planned to motivate staff, Sharpley said that he and the directors would ensure that staff members were well taken care of. Another way to motivate staff was to commend them for jobs well done.

"I will have an open door policy where people can come and discuss important issues that will propel the municipality forward. I am willing to do that, but within reason," he said. "We want to have a unified Buffalo City where we do not point fingers when we stumble, but a City that looks at a problem and solves it in unison."

On Wednesday, 6 December Sharpley will speak to inland staff at the King William's Town War Memorial.