22 April 2024
Drakenstein Municipality further solidified its reputation as a frontrunner in municipal excellence in South Africa when it was confirmed as Best Secondary City in the Western Cape and runner-up in the Best Municipality overall category at the Western Cape Government’s prestigious Service Excellence Awards on Friday night (19 April 2024). The top spot for Best Municipality in the province went to Swartland Municipality.
At the event hosted at the Stellenbosch Town Hall, Drakenstein Municipality also aced silver in the Best Project category, and bronze in the Best Red Tape Reduction/Ease of Doing Business category.
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. This year was the 9th time. The awards promote the sharing of best practices, learning, and gauging citizens’ satisfaction with government performance.
“Winning these awards is a great honour and it does not come without hard work and dedication. For that I salute Dr Johan Leibbrandt, our City Manager, and his top management team,” said Councillor Stephen Korabie, newly elected Executive Mayor of Drakenstein Municipality. “Our Municipality does not shy away from doing pioneering work. This approach not only improves the lives of our residents and businesses, but also attracts more investors and developers to our city of excellence.”
In the Best Red Tape Reduction/Ease of Doing Business category, all accolades were awarded to Drakenstein’s Retention and Growth Team (RGT). The RGT successfully bridges the gap between the Municipality and the business community of Drakenstein, ensuring a streamlined service experience for both existing businesses and prospective investors. Beyond legislative adjustments, the RGT’s hands-on support has significantly expedited service delivery and planning-related decisions.
Surpassing other worthy contenders for the Best Project award was Drakenstein Municipality’s groundbreaking initiative to house UPS (uninterrupted power supply) traffic signalling equipment in underground chambers - a first for Africa. Designed in partnership with Smartlock Systems, these chambers are equipped with alarms that can detect attempts to gain unauthorised access. To facilitate maintenance, the equipment can be hoisted to above ground level to allow user input and maintenance at eye level. The project is part of Drakenstein Municipality’s three-pronged approach to mitigate Eskom loadshedding and underscores the Municipality’s commitment to infrastructure that sustains growth, supports businesses, tourism, and serves the commuting public. For more on this project, read here.
“It is important for us to continue regulating the flow of traffic, especially at our major traffic intersections, during Eskom loadshedding. In a growing city such as Drakenstein, it is vital that the Municipality augments our infrastructure to cope with increased traffic. Our residents, businesses, developers, and visitors expect nothing less of a first-world city,” said the Executive Mayor.
Drakenstein Municipality was recently rated the Number One Secondary City in South Africa by Good Governance Africa in its 2024 Governance Performance Index report. Since 2008, the Municipality has achieved 16 consecutive unqualified audit opinions from the Auditor-General of South Africa, of which nine were clean audits.
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Issued by: Communication and Marketing, Drakenstein Municipality
