The Institute of Municipal Finance Officers
Western Cape Branch
LOCAL GOVERNMENT: A POST-2010 SUSTAINABLE APPROACH
Yunus Carrim
Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
Saldanha Bay
31 May 2010

Use the World Cup Energy in Municipalities
We are just 11 days away from the opening match of the World Cup! And we are ready! Contrary to the expectations of many. Yes, yes there’ll be transport and other challenges. But we are on track to deliver a great World Cup. We are not Germany or Japan. And we do not want to be. We will deliver a quintessentially South African World Cup – noisy, exciting, ramshackle, charming, dramatic, unforgettable! The World Cup will expose us to our own potential and give us a sense of who we can be. Just look right now at the groundswell of national pride sweeping the country.. Consider the crowds at the Bafana-Columbia match, the flags, the Bafana shirts – people from across different communities are so enthusiastically involved. Have we seen such a non-racialism before?  .

Not least of those to whom we owe a lot for the preparations for the World Cup are the 9 host cities and other municipalities which will serve as the base for the visiting teams. But many other municipalities have also played a variety of roles in preparing for the World Cup. To all of you, we say a big thank you. And we call on you to do even better in the weeks ahead.

As we take pride in our preparations for the World Cup, we must ask: if we can do it for the World Cup, why not for service delivery and development? Just think, for example, of those wonderful stadiums, built on time, to FIFA’s exacting standards. Yes, of course, preparing for the World Cup is different in nature and scope and magnitude from service delivery and development, but why can’t be put the energy and zest and commitment we put into the World Cup into ensuring more effective development of our people?     

    
I’ve been asked to speak about post-2010 sustainability issues in local government. So here’s one to immediately comment on. Let’s make the drive behind the World Cup sustainable. Let’s not on 12 July retreat into complacency. Let’s put more energy and enthusiasm into making municipalities work, making them far more efficient and effective than they are at present.

And you, as municipal finance officers, have a crucial role to play in this regard. Especially as your municipalities will never be able to be more effective unless they manage their finances and resources more efficiently and productively.