Minister to town councils: Present accurate info to govt
MBABANE – The Minister of Housing and Urban Development, Appolo Maphalala, has encouraged local authorities to present accurate information to government.
Maphalala said the central govern ment¶s trust in local authorities must not be debatable.
He was speaking when addressing mayors and chief executive officers (CEOs) of the different town councils and municipalities at the Eswatini Housing Board offices in Mbabane yesterday.
Maphalala appreciated the towns for their hospitality during his recent tours.
Budgets
He said his visits were intended to familiarise himself with all the towns¶ administrations, before budgets.
According to Maphalala, during his visits, he noted cross cutting issues af fecting the towns and cities, one being intergovernmental fiscal relations.
He explained that the money com ing from government to towns was no longer predictable.
Maphalala stated that as govern ment, they were not in the business of pointing fingers at other structures within government.
The minister revealed that they were yet to sit down and discuss how the relations, in terms of money, between central government and local govern ment can be appropriately defined.
However, Maphalala said there was a need for towns to work on the information they possess.
He advised towns to have accurate information, be it on government properties or citi]ens.
“They should improve all data for available plots. The data should be correctly captured, so that their trust as a local government sector to central government is not debatable,´ Maphalala said.
He acknowledged that towns¶ review of properties were correctly registered, but there is a need to im prove, µso that when engaging central government with all issues, you find everything in order¶.
Reflect
)urthermore, Maphalala committed to meeting the stakeholders periodi cally to reflect on their operations. He highlighted that there was a need for local authorities to also actively participate in development.
“Government charged the Minis try of Tinkhundla, Administration and 'evelopment to lead a process of executing and operationalising Chapter of the Constitution. This says there should be a single system countrywide, which will reduce the rural urban dichotomy. The urban local government has a huge stake and there is a need to participate in the process once we are called,´ he said.