UPDATE - Buffalo City

New Year’s Message
From Executive Mayor Councillor Zukisa Faku
The City last November
welcomed Vusumuzi Mavuso as
the Acting Municipal Manager.
He heads up an administration of
nearly 5 000 employees.
His role includes managing the
implementation of the municipality’s
Integrated Development Plan and
unfolding the City Development
Strategy premised on the pillars
of financially sustainable good
governance in a City that is both
inclusive and productive.
The Municipal Manager is also
responsible for ensuring that the
City’s administration is aligned
with the political priorities and
programmes of Council.
While ensuring the
administration’s compliance
with relevant legislation with a
development ethos, the Municipal
Manager also provides advisory
services to the Executive Mayor
and Council with regard to policy
issues.
The Buffalo City Municipal
Manager also ensures that the
development and implementation
of strategies have measurable
positive impact on organisational
productivity and financial
performance.
The Municipal Manager’s key
performance areas include:
• Basic Service Delivery
Executive Mayor Zukisa Faku
2010, the year that everybody
in South Africa has been waiting for
with anticipation, is finally here.
The political and social hype that
people, collectively and individually,
have built into 2010 has raised the
hopes and aspirations of many, and
have branded 2010 as the year of
fulfilment of dreams.
For the people of Buffalo City,
specifically, 2010 marks the turning
point from misery to exultation, from
material deficit to opportunities,
from poverty to abundance, and
from emotional deprivation to
spiritual wealth.
The workforce of Buffalo City
Municipality has a very important
role to play in realizing all these and
other positive goals and ambitions
of the people of Buffalo City.
Whilst it is true that the
Municipality can never hope to
create enough jobs to cater for the
overflowing market of job-seekers
in this region, we have a central
and cardinal role to play in ensuring
their comfort, and ensuring that
they receive the basic services due
to them.
It is therefore my wish and
hope that, as we are still at the
City Appoints Acting Municipal Manager
• Local Economic Development
• Municipal Financial Viability
• Municipal Transformation
• Good Governance and Public
Participation
Background:
Before taking up the post of
Acting Municipal Manager with
Buffalo City, Vusumuzi Mavuso
was a Regional Director in the City
of Johannesburg, a position he
occupied since 2004.
Mavuso is the Chairperson of
The newly appointed Acting Municipal Manager, Vusumuzi Mavuso
2
the Institute of Local Government
in Gauteng Province, a former
trade unionist, activist and
community development worker.
He was a member of the provincial
legislature in Gauteng from 1994
to 1999 and has served in several
legislature committees.
In 1999, Mavuso represented
Gauteng in the Public Service
Commission.
Between 2000 and 2002,
Mavuso was employed as the
opening stage of the year 2010,
we will, jointly and severally, take
a conscious decision to serve
the population of Buffalo City
with honour and dignity, to go the
extra mile in providing them with
whatever the Municipality has been
tasked to provide, and to ensure
that they enjoy their status as
citizens of Buffalo City.
In saying this, I am mindful of
the fact that we, as the municipal
staff, also have hopes and
aspirations for the year 2010, and
that many of these are related to
the workplace environment and our
general conditions of service.
In this regard, I promise to
continue my periodical interactions
with the municipal trade union
leadership on matters affecting
our workforce. I also invite your
trade union leaders to adopt this
same attitude, and to continue
representing the needs and
aspirations of their members.
Together we have a corporate
responsibility to instil a sense of
pride within our workforce, whilst
giving due cognisance to issues
that frustrate them.
It is in this spirit that I welcome
back all the staff that have been on
holiday during the festive season. It
is also in this spirit that I throw the
gauntlet to municipal employees in
general to strive to make 2010 the
year of success and victory for the
Municipality in its endeavours to
create a better life for the people.
head of department for Local
Government in Gauteng, before
joining a private sector consultancy
as a Local Government specialist.
Mavuso has a post-graduate
qualification in management from
the Public and Development
Management School at the
University of the Witwatersrand
in Johannesburg. He has also
completed several certificate
programmes in management and
Local Government.
Welcoming:
In welcoming Mavuso,
Executive Mayor Zukisa Faku said
she hoped that he would follow his
name and “rebuild this house of
Buffalo City”. Vusumuzi means to
rebuild the house.
She said Buffalo City had been
without a Municipal Manager for
the past 12 months. “During this
period, we have had to appoint
Acting Municipal Managers from
our pool of directors and acting
directors, on a rotational basis.”
The biggest disadvantage of
this practice was that nobody sat
in office long enough to visualise
and strategise development
programmes for the municipality
and its people. The incumbents
were simply there to manage
the day-to-day running of the
municipality.