Q: What are the highlights of your first 100 days in office and were there any goals set that were not achieved and if so why?

A: Benchmarks within 100 days are unreasonable in our circumstances. Especially when you inherit paralyzing institutional trauma. Under performing delivery and a poor municipal spending record indicated major problems. It set the agenda for me. I faced and still am facing enormous pressure on many fronts.

I was forced to act decisively and managed to restore institutional stability to govern with grace in this age of hope, the motto I have adopted in trying to reinstate and sustain respect and confidence in our governance. I have good respectable working relationships with my political colleagues and have brought new energy into responsible multipartyism. Top management has pledged their loyalty and support after being freed from what they labeled authoritarian rule.

Organogram restructuring is underway in pursuit of a lean and mean municipal delivery machine that can be monitored, measured and evaluated. I am insisting on a reformed performance management system linked to our IDP and one that can hold everybody – politicians and officials – accountable. I am putting in place independent outside verification of this performance system. All things being equal, I hope to have the system in place by the end of the year.

I have done this following a view-sharing meeting with the Auditor-General, various meetings with business and discussions with political principals and colleagues.

One in-your-face indicator is the intervention in the refuse collection drama. Everything is set for the three-month R4 million intervention and if cleanliness is sustained throughout the City, then a positive message will go out that we can do it as a collective.

Q: Why are you going to the World Cup soccer in Germany and how do you see Buffalo City benefiting? This is your second overseas trip in your short term. Do you not worry that the public may view this as a case of another official state-funded junket?

A: These are irritating questions from uninformed short-sighted sources that have not come to terms with a competitive globalised world. Our country officially accepts the mantle of responsibility of organizing 2010 when the final whistle is blown in Germany and the Premier was invited together with other key government leaders to be there.

The Premier went on a three-legged journey and invited the Mayors of the main cities in the Eastern Cape. The idea is to market the Province with its diversity for the projected 500 000 visitors to South Africa in 2010. We need to ensure out sure of that 500 000 tourism spend both at a Province-wide level and at a City level. Not to speak of the nearly R500 billion expected to go into infrastructure and the billions that it will translate into our GDP.

I believe it will be criminal if we just stand on the sidelines as the World Cup translates, not only into a soccer extravaganza, but a once-in-a-lifetime development opportunity. The Province is being given an opportunity by Danny Jordaan's Local Organising Committee to show what it's got and to stake its claim of the investment rands. Nelson Mandela metro is our provincial host city and we are a base city, meaning we can still have a visiting team making Buffalo City its headquarters. That's if we can either get a new legacy stadium built in time or one of our existing facilities can be reengineered to Fifa standards.

I understand that after the celebratory handover to South Africa in Germany, there is an investment conference in Berlin where we can feature. My office has been in contact with DaimlerChrysler officials in Germany as well as other German friends of Buffalo City to see what avenues they can open for us. A lot is possible and this is why I have taken up the Premier's invitation. This is not only about soccer or a state-funded junket as you call it. It is about high-stake development of our City which must be able to capture its share of the tourism cake as well as the development frenzy. To that purpose, the old Council resolved last year to put R300 000 of a proposed R1 million of our Restructuring Grant immediately aside to position the City for 2010. We should have acted earlier but nevertheless we must do something immediately.

I have appointed Councillor Mhleli Matika to drive 2010 and we are advertising for a Strategic Manager dedicated to the task. If we all join hands and stop being negative, I believe we can do something positive for the City.

My 10-day trip to Sweden was sponsored by Sida (Swedish International Development Agency) which has apportioned R75 million of their donor money to invest in Buffalo City over five years. One of the projects is for a City Development Strategy (CDS), an internationally-sanctioned system being implemented in major cities of the world – including Sweden. We visited six cities as part of the Swedish-sponsored project to see first hand how it is implemented. We learnt a lot including the fact that CDS can only be driven when there is good political buy-in. It was in no ways a state-funded junket.

It is time people start living in the modern globalised world and not allow the Information Age to pass them by. They must also learn the intricacies of donor aid and recipient country's and cities obligations and responsibilities with agreed projects. All this donor interventions are overseered by National Treasury.

Q: At the end of your term as Mayor, what is it that you hope to achieve?

A: A safe, healthy, environmentally, financially sustainable and stable City where all people get good services from a Batho Pele –driven municipality and there is no place like Second Creek. We launched our Local Economic Development intentions recently in which we hope to cut unemployment by releasing the entrepreneurial skills of our people and creating a climate conducive for all to do business.

As I said in my State of City speech, we must create more than 7 000 jobs a year if we are going to halve unemployment as set out in the Millennium Goals. I think people need to revisit that State of the City Address to see what we are on about.

Q: Mayoral House: why is it not being used?

A: I have my own home in King William's Town and I've said I will not be relocating. The out of office hours work does put a strain traveling between my office, engagements and my home, especially after hours A place nearer the office and the engagements is inviting and a collective decision on this troublesome house will have to be taken sometime.

Q: How far is the process of hiring a municipal manager and when will you make and appointment?

A: The advertisement is ready and we will be advertising soon. I want this matter dealt with quickly. I cannot say exactly when because we don't want to just appoint anyone for the sake of having a City Manager. It must be the right person who fits into our vision for the future and a person who will be a real good implementing head. It must be a professional person who understands the intricacies of developmental local government.

Q: What are you plans to ensure that the municipality does not underspend as in the past?

A: I view under spending in a very serious light. I believe strongly that a good Performance Management System that is linked to our IDP is the answer. There must be clear indicators that set quarterly targets. People must be held accountable with these targets and it will act as an early warning system when things are not going right.

Our legally required Service Business Delivery Implementation Plan (SBDIP) has actually been delayed on its way to Council because I was not happy as it did not afford me a proper management tool to hold people accountable. I also want Section 57 performance contracts to be linked to the IDP so that everybody is held accountable. I believe it is going to make world of difference in spending patterns. It will enhance delivery.

Q: The issue of the Deputy Mayor. The ANC argued that due to the workload, the Mayor needed a helping hand in the form of a Deputy Mayor. Is the Mayoral workload too much and are you coping?

A: It is nice to see people concerned about my workload. It is eased through the help of Mayoral Committee members when and if I need it. It is also eased by strengthening of my core office staff. Strong administrative support is vital and I urgently need to resource my office.

It would be nicer if these people, some who complain bitterly about crime in this country, were as concerned about my safety and security. They choose rather to compromise my security through public discussion and jokes about Hollywood-style bodyguards surrounding me. And Costa Gazi asks what I am afraid of. It is a strange question coming from a politician who was stabbed in the chest by one of his own party members. I would be afraid if I were him, very afraid. He would be even more afraid if he were privy to the racist letters we receive or the type of manipulated violent protests by a handful of people which we witnessed at my inaugural address.

Q: Subsequent to that toyi toyi and marches, the municipality has gone to the high court to interdict three perceived instigators, march applicants from interfering with yourself and the municipality among others. Do you think it is wise to use the courts to fight political opponents?

A: Political opponents debate differences. Violent protests that injure people and damage property cannot be allowed. There is a big difference and the law must take its course. It would be irresponsible to risk life and limb or to allow a national monument like the City Hall to be damaged. We have a responsibility to ensure law and order when political opposition becomes violent and chaotic.

Q: How much is the VIP unit costing the municipality?

A: Your newspaper wrote something about R12 000. I am not prepared to put a monetary sum on my safety and security or compromise my safety through public discussion. If you are so concerned with costs why don't you talk about the cost of a Deputy Mayor? Or is my workload more important than my safety? It is strange.

Q: Households in Dimbaza, among other places, receive two to three accounts for municipal services. Why is this so? And you admitted when you opened the Munifin Building that there were billing challenges. How are you dealing with them?

A: Yes there are some problems in billing following the consolidation of municipal accounts with the merging of King and EL. The two had different computer systems. It is the billing problems that made us to be included in Project Consolidate. We are working on it and I am sure it can be sorted out because we are not so bad. You need to read the European Union assessment before they decided to assist us with more than R100 million for the Mdantsane Urban Renewal Programme.

The handover launch of the EU intervention will take place on 5^th July. The EU said in their report about Buffalo City: "The expansion of the local economy is evident in strongly increasing property prices in past years and is supported by a successful local government that has one of the best financial management systems/records in the country."

Q: BCM is owed over R300m and you say in your speech business debt is piling up. What are you doing to address the matter?

A: Credit control is an ongoing matter. We had been known in the past to act harshly because the law demands that we collect money owed to us irrespective who owes the money. I will expect our Revenue Management section to act accordingly.

ENDS.