SALGA to be under spot light during Scopa meeting

By Ofentse Mokae
27 May 2010

Serious problems within the South African Local Government Association will be dealt with in a parliamentary meeting today when government briefs the Standing Committee on Public Accounts.

At a Scopa hearing last month, it emerged that SALGA got an auditor’s disclaimer of opinion because of problems emanating from KwaZulu-Natal Local Government Association (KWANALOGA).

The committee then resolved that deputy co-operative governance Minister Yunus Carrim should intervene to normalise the situation.

Carrim along with his Kwa-Zulu Natal counter-part Nomusa Dube will brief the committee on the progress made with regard to SALGA and KWANALOGA.

Last month SALGA was criticised by Parliament for not carrying out its mandate.

SALGA Chief Executive Xolile George hit back saying the criticism was wrong and painted the association in "a bad light".

An ANC MP levelled a claim at SALGA saying the association had presented an impressive list of about 120 key performance indicators (KPIs), but had failed to carry out about 70 percent of them.

However George hit back saying there had in fact been 157 KPIs of which 58 percent had been achieved while 10 percent were partly achieved and 32 percent were not achieved, and the latter was a result of the association’s capacity problems.

SALGA is an organisation mandated by the constitution to assist in the transformation of local government in South Africa from the pre-1994 regime to the new dispensation under the country's first democratically elected government.

Carrim says the association has a pivotal role to play in assisting municipalities to deliver better services for the people of South Africa.

“SALGA, as an autonomous body belonging to a different sphere of government, remained a key partner of the ministry which needed to be engaged without compromising its autonomy as a separate entity,” Carrim said.