Municipality recognised for improved audit and housing development
IT is almost the end of Ndlambe mayor Phindile Faxi’s first 100 days in office and, having asked for this time to get his plans for the municipality in order, he was able to boast two prestigious awards made to Ndlambe at the open council meeting on Monday.
The first award was from the office of the Auditor General (AG), who issued a certificate to the Ndlambe Municipality for the most improved audit results for the financial year 2014/2015. In the previous year Ndlambe was given a disclaimer, meaning the AG could not complete his audit as there were too many anomalies in the figures presented.
In the 2014/2015 AG report Ndlambe attained a qualified audit, meaning that, while there were several items (such as unaccounted and irregular expenditure) that remain to be fixed, the audit report was a marked improvement on the previous year.
“I cannot take credit for the work done by the previous mayor Sipho Tandani and his team, but it is a good start for my term in office,” said Faxi, who went on to say that he and his team were working hard to receive an unqualified audit for the 2015/2016 financial year.
In spite of numerous problems before work began, the Kenton-on-Sea housing project was also given an award for the outstanding work carried out in building 55 completed houses at Ekuphumleni township, an area named “New Town” by the residents. The ultimate goal is to complete 565 houses.
“We received the award for the speed as well as the quality of the work in completing the houses at Kenton,” said municipal spokesman Cecil Mbolekwa.
“The level of cooperation between the district department of human settlements and the municipality was held as an exemplar to other municipalities and, for that reason we were awarded the Govan Mbeki award.
“We have also found that we can resolve issues raised on-site, without any work stoppages, and that is what made it possible to complete the 55 homes in record time.”
The Kenton development had been a sore point for residents for years before the project actually began, with community members staging protests on several occasions in an attempt to get the project underway. Community leaders wanted to know why construction work had not started at Kenton while other projects in Alexandria, Port Alfred and Nemato were underway.
A total of 20 houses were handed over to residents in July, with the remaining 35 houses on September 27.
Ndlambe is now hoping to win similar awards for the project at the provincial level as well as at national level.
