30 Nov 2022

Kgatleng District Council has been called upon to double revenue collection efforts.

Council chairperson Mr Daniel Molokwe said during a meeting this week that the entity should come up with strategies for raising more revenue.

He said the council continued to experience revenue collection challenges thereby worsening its financial position.

As at October 30, he said, collection stood at P3 544 623.93 against a target of P5 324 445.00

Mr Molokwe urged the council to expedite the long outstanding project of formulating rates in order to increase revenue collection.

“I call on the relevant department to expedite the valuation process and do it cost effectively,” he said.

 Turning to other issues,  Mr Molokwe informed councillors that implementation of the Ipelegeng Programme was progressing as planned.

He said the Ministry of Local Government and Rural Development had disbursed all the approved funds making it easy for the programme to run efficiently.

“The programme beneficiaries continue to be engaged at all our schools across the district as well as in vegetation control, litter picking and clearing of roads activities,” he said.

Mr Molokwe said some Ipelegeng projects were at 67 per cent while clearing of roads at Seshoboloko, Thakadu and Matlhage lands were ongoing with the intention of making transportation of agricultural produce easier.

He said in Kgatleng, the programme had cumulatively employed a 13 237 people since the beginning of the current financial year.

To date, a total of P7 564 147.56 had been spent on beneficiaries’ wages, he disclosed.

Mr Molokwe said beneficiaries continued to experience difficulties in receiving their monthly wages owing to their reluctance to register for MyZaka – an ABSA app used for processing payments.

 Mr Molokwe said the council continued to engage the bank to find ways of improving the service and reduce disruptions.

The process had so far not yielded any tangible improvements, he said. 

Mr Molokwe said following government’s decision to add a skills development component to the Ipelegeng Programme, the district had set up an implementation team.

Maintenance of Olifant’s Drift community hall would therefore be undertaken through the component  whose overall goal was to empower beneficiaries and facilitate graduation from the programme or reduce dependency, he said. ENDS