City  entities sign performance agreement

15-05-2015

 

The chairpersons and executive directors of the City of Johannesburg’s municipal entities (MEs) yesterday (Thursday May 14) signed the Shareholder’s Compact Agreement in which they committed themselves to delivering the highest possible standards of service.

All MEs, except City Power, signed the agreement at the Parktonian Hotel in Braamfontein. Executive Mayor Councillor Parks Tau said he had mandated the electricity utility to redefine itself not only as a power supplier but also as a generator of energy.

The entities that signed the agreement also committed themselves to contributing to the success of the City’s key programmes, such as Jozi@work and Corridors of Freedom.

The signing ceremony was attended by several members of the Mayoral Committee, including Councillor Chris Vondo (Community Development), Councillor Matshidiso Mfikoe (Infrastructure and Environmental Services), Councillor Christine Walters (Transport), Councillor Ruby Mathang (Economic Development) and Councillor Roslyn Greeff (Development Planning). 

In his address, Executive Mayor Tau said the City’s mandate was not only to provide services but also to go beyond that by putting more emphasis on transformation to make the City a world-class African City.

Mayor Tau said service delivery was part of the City’s mandate. He, however, believed that “our main responsibility is that of transforming society. In our five-year term of office, we have identified projects that will enable us to effect this task of transformation. We believe that if we are able to do certain things we will be able to advance transformation.

“The Mayoral Committee spent more than six hours formulating the budget plan to ensure that what we are applying our minds to is what we want in our transformation plan,” he said.

The Mayor said through the blue economy the City would be able to “create small enterprises and create jobs”.

“This is an important milestone as we continue to identify ways to improve performance within the City.

“We live in a complex environment. When the lights go off and there are potholes in the streets, people will phone the City ... We make sure that we deal with the problems because we are the City that responds to service delivery queries,” he said.

Mohamed Adam, a lawyer and member of the King Commission and co-author of The Power of Governance: Enhancing the Performance of State-Owned Enterprises, spoke about effective leadership in corporate governance. He said good corporate governance required that the board must govern with integrity and in a manner that entrenched and enhanced the licence it had to operate.

Adam said leadership must be measured against purpose, integrity and values of the vision or objective that had been set. He added that governance was about effective leadership.

“It is about conversations that leaders are having, not the boxes they are ticking. It is about courage and decision-making,” he said.