Premier Mabuza calls on municipal leaders to take their rightful positions  

30 June 2013

Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza has appealed to municipal leaders to master their leadership skills, saying the people have run out of patience and would soon remove them from their positions.

Speaking at a one-day special local government summit on Friday [28 June 2013] convened in the Mbombela Stadium in Nelspruit, Premier Mabuza said he did not get a sense that mayors were willing to lead with passion.

The summit was attended by the mayors, members of mayoral committees, municipal managers, chief whips, municipal chief financial officers, heads of departments from the provincial government and some members of the executive council.

The Premier lashed out at the municipal leaders for not prioritising the delivery of the services and failing to interact with the people by giving feedback on the challenges they faced in running the municipalities.

The Premier said he was dissatisfied that when people protested, their concerns were mostly genuine and the municipalities did nothing to improve on delivering the services.

“You must remember that this freedom we are enjoying today, did not come to us free. When you do not work for the people, you are deliberately betraying the struggle of our fore-fathers and those people who laid their lives in order for us to be free.
“I am aware that leading is difficult, but if it means not sleeping, let us do whatever it takes to ensure that we work for the people. You were not chosen to be in these positions by a mistake, there was a good reason for it, but it is not acceptable that you are allowing the bad to dominate instead of the good.
“Leadership means accepting the will of the people. Without leadership, we can hammer on these things until our heads turn grey. I think we are capable, all we need to do is to be ambitious and be passionate to work for our people,” said Mabuza.

Mabuza added that it was time to “give the confidence back to the people” who voted the current government into power because they voted irrespective of the challenges they always complained about.

He explained that the democratic government was in power for the past 19 years and the period for learning was over.  He said the summit should provide the provincial government with an assessment report of the status of the municipalities.

“I am not a happy person because things are not going the positive way. I will not just complain just for the sake of complaining, but I would give my full support where it is needed and commend where there is good work,” said Mabuza.

According to the Premier, he was disturbed by the fact that some municipal leaders opted to forget the manifesto of the ruling party whereas they held senior political positions in the organisation.

He said it was discouraging that some municipal leaders colluded with criminals in stealing public funds instead of defending the vision and the values of the ruling party.

“You must understand that whatever that you do wrong, you are misrepresenting the ruling party. All the municipalities in our province are led by the ANC; people gave us mandate although they had reservations about how we do our work. Let us therefore prioritise the people,” said Mabuza.
During the summit, municipalities presented their integrated development plans assessment reports. There are indications that there could be other municipalities that might be placed under administration following the urgent and serious need for and intervention.

Issued by Zibonele Mncwango
Spokesperson: Mpumalanga Premier
Tel: (013) 766 – 2453
Mobile: 079 491 0163
E-mail: zmncwango@mpg.gov.za

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