The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs is satisfied with the manner in which Minister Pravin Gordhan intends to improve the performance of municipalities and their entities.

Committee Chairperson Richard Mdakane says the committee is pleased that Gordhan has undertaken to, among other interventions, impose severe penalties on poor performing municipalities.

“It is pleasing to see that the minister has undertaken to improve the local government by introducing measures that will see notable improvement in the performance of our municipalities. Poor performance by some municipalities can no longer be tolerated as they are a sphere of government responsible for expanding access to basic services to all our people and for the advancement of our communities,” said Mdakane.

The committee said this after a concerning performance by some of the country’s municipalities. Yesterday, Auditor-General Mr Kimi Makwetu tabled the 2012-13 local government audit outcomes. While the Committee was impressed by improvements made by the 15 municipalities and two municipal entities who have improved their previous year’s audit outcomes by progressing to clean audit, the Committee wanted this performance replicated by all municipalities.

Mdakane said his committee will monitor the Gordhan’s plans, their implementation, and the adherence of municipalities to these measures. He added that Parliament will also use its powers to support the minister and municipalities to achieve better results in future.