Buthelezi: IFP to keep Okhahlamba

2011-04-30 22:47

Johannesburg - The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) will continue leading the Okhahlamba municipal council after the local government elections, party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Saturday.

"The IFP has been in power in this municipality ever since the current municipal structure was introduced more than a decade ago," he said in Bergville declaring his party's intention to retain the municipality.

"We are proud to have brought stability and development to this previously neglected and underdeveloped rural area. We have done this against all odds, so to speak."

Buthelezi said his party had to deal with insufficient funding municipalities receive from the national fiscus.

He said it had to find creative ways to ensure the day-to-day running of a municipality that could not raise much in the way of its own revenue because the vast majority of its residents live in abject poverty.

"With decades in power at local level in KwaZulu-Natal, and most recently in control of the province's 32 mostly rural and underdeveloped municipalities, the IFP has demonstrated its ability to govern effectively, efficiently and with integrity and compassion."

"All IFP run municipalities would make annual tariff increases as equitable, gradual and predictable as possible to limit disagreements and prevent unpleasant surprises.

"And also make sure that residents were billed correctly and only for the services they consume," Buthelezi said.

- SAPA