 | Service Excellence Awards: Drakenstein Municipality officially Western Cape’s best secondary city
16 May 2023 | Press Releases |
16 May 2023
It is official! Drakenstein Municipality is the Western Cape's best secondary city and runner-up in the Best Municipality category of the 8th Provincial Government's Service Excellence Awards. It shares this place with Swartland Municipality, while Overstrand Municipality claimed the top spot. The awards ceremony was held on Friday, 12 May 2023, at the Century City Convention Centre in Cape Town.
Drakenstein Municipality's Oosbosch Street Upgrade Project, named one of the five Best Municipal Projects in the province, also received special recognition. The R128 million upgrade of Oosbosch Street in Paarl - from Berg River Boulevard to Jan van Riebeeck Drive - transformed the street into a four-lane divided road to accommodate the area's existing and future traffic volumes. The project illustrated demanding and commendable engineering precision, and also includes the first-ever-in-Africa underground housing of traffic signalling equipment to prevent theft and vandalism.
“There has never been a more important time for municipalities to show their mettle and to demonstrate to the public of South Africa that we are serious about quality, reliable and consistent service delivery," said an overjoyed Alderman Conrad Poole, Executive Mayor of Drakenstein Municipality. “We are honoured and proud to be acknowledged for our efforts and our commitment in this way, and humbled to share the stage with so many other deserving municipalities in the province."
The Western Cape Government hosts the Service Excellence Awards annually to recognise and reward excellence in the public sector, promote a citizen-centric culture, and to entrench professionalism. The awards also promote the sharing of best practices, learning, and gauging citizens' satisfaction with government performance.
A recent Growth Potential Study by the Western Cape Department of Environmental Affairs and Development Planning identified Drakenstein Municipality as having one of the highest growth potentials in the province. Covering Paarl, Wellington, Mbekweni, Gouda, Hermon, Saron and Simondium, the Municipality is currently home to 305 281 residents (74 230 households), which makes it the largest municipality in the province outside Cape Town.
15 consecutive unqualified audit opinions
Since 2011, Drakenstein Municipality has achieved 15 consecutive unqualified audit opinions from the Auditor-General of South Africa, of which eight were clean audits. “This was the result of uncompromising fiscal discipline, clean governance, and responsible financial management - all achieved with in-house capacity and without the appointment of any consultants," said Dr Johan Leibbrandt, City Manager of Drakenstein Municipality, who joined the Executive Mayor and Alderman Gert Combrink, Deputy Executive Mayor of the Municipality, at the Service Excellence Awards Ceremony.
“We went through a period of R1.6 billion intensive capital investment to ensure that bulk services – especially water and sewerage services - are available for further development, growth, and for attracting investment to Drakenstein. Throughout this period and to date, our spending has always been above 90%," he said. “The Municipality prioritised the delivery of services, while maximising on the spending of all available funding. We made a strategic decision to cut back on loan funding to ensure long-term financial sustainability and a stable investment environment."
Taking on a corporate culture of 'getting things done'
Drakenstein Municipality further ascribes its award to its robust performance evaluation system, and its strong focus on overall productivity by means of staff efficiency monitoring. Taking on a corporate culture of “getting things done", a dedicated Monitoring & Evaluation function in the Office of the City Manager monitors compliance and provides feedback to the Strategic Management Team to ensure performance. Identified challenges or risks are also captured as action-orientated outputs with clear due dates and a responsible person or manager. Where improvement is required, the Municipality does not shy away from applying change management.
“Despite increasing and unforeseen demands on municipalities and service delivery, such as droughts, the COVID-19 pandemic, rapid urbanisation, and high-stage Eskom loadshedding, we keep on delivering on our core mandate which is service delivery. These curveballs keep us on our toes, and drive us to constantly come up with new and creative solutions in the ever-changing local government space," added Dr Leibbrandt.
Drakenstein Municipality ranked 14th out of 205 local municipalities in the research and advocacy non-profit organisation Good Governance Africa's Governance Performance Index (GPI) – South Africa 2021. It was rated the Number Three secondary city in South Africa, and the top secondary city in the Western Cape.
The Municipality regularly applies innovation, automation and technology (such as drone technology, GIS (Geographic Information System) apps, and smart water technology*) to drive service delivery excellence. To eradicate the increasing vandalism and theft of traffic light installations, the Municipality initiated the development of an innovative way to protect traffic signal installations as part of the Oosbosch Street Project.
First-ever-in-Africa underground housing of traffic signalling equipment
For the first time in Africa, the UPS (uninterrupted power supply) system, batteries, controller, and other equipment for the traffic signals are housed in underground chambers. These chambers were developed in collaboration with Smartlock Systems and are equipped with alarms that can detect attempts to gain unauthorised access. To facilitate work on the equipment, the equipment can be hoisted to above ground level to allow user input and maintenance at eye level.
The two-year Oosbosch Street Project, officially declared open on 14 October 2021, forms an integral part of the development of mobility routes for all modes of traffic between the various residential and business hubs in Drakenstein, including public transport. One of the beauties of this project is that it literally crosses a traditional divide between Paarl's east and west, providing much needed stimulation for economic development and social integration. It also opened up improved access to the economy – both for business and industrial opportunities.
For more on this project, click on this video or read here.
“In an ever-expanding city such as Drakenstein with several big-name brands coming to invest here, it is important that the Municipality ensures that the area has the necessary infrastructure to cope with the influx of people and the heavier traffic load that accompanies it," concluded Alderman Poole.
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*NOTE: Using smart water technology, Drakenstein Municipality is able to pull data via satellites to its telemetric system – a smart system that monitors operations at the Municipality's dams, reservoirs, boreholes and water treatment plants. The real beauty of this technology, explains André Kowalewski, Manager: Water and Wastewater Services at the Municipality, is that he or any of his senior management team can see, in real time, from his office, what is happening at reservoirs, pump stations and flow meters - as far as Saron. Read the full story in our Vars digital newsletter here: VARS_JULY 2022 (flippingbook.com)
Issued by: Communication and Marketing, Drakenstein Municipality
