CHIEF EXECUTIVE
OFFICER’S OVERVIEW
Xolile George
Chief Executive
In presenting a summary of our work during
the past year, SALGA is ever conscious of its
responsibility to be the voice of millions of
people in South Africa who are constituents of
the municipalities we serve. This is not a task that
SALGA takes lightly. We are deeply aware of the
impact that our various programmes need to have
on local government level in empowering our
people and enabling them to fulfil their potential.
It is in this context that we take this opportunity
to look back on 2016/17 and highlight our most
important achievements.
Without a doubt, the biggest event of the past
year was the local government elections that
took place on 3 August 2016. Together with other
relevant arms of government, SALGA played its
part in helping to prepare for the elections and
in ensuring that the handover to a new cadre
of councillors and other office bearers at local
government level proceeded as smoothly as
possible. In doing so, we focused strongly on
our mandates of capacity building, knowledge
and information sharing, support and advice,
all of which fed strongly into our apex priority
of improved municipal capacity, and that of
repositioning SALGA as a centre for knowledge.
At the same time, SALGA as an organisation
underwent its own transition with a new
president, national executive committee (NEC),
provincial executive committees (PECs) and
other governance structures. Our competent and
stable staff component coped admirably with
the handover to the new office bearers, ensuring
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that they were brought up to speed as quickly as
possible to obviate any disruption of our services.
In considering the range of SALGA’s work, it is
sometimes a challenge to adequately represent
the wideness of its scope. Indeed, our work
covers every aspect of local government, from
energy, water and waste management, through
to housing and human settlements, economic
growth, health services and disaster management,
to the more internally focused capacity building
efforts such as leadership development,
governance, financial management, anti-
corruption measures, councillor welfare, and
human resource development. Of particular
long-term importance is our lobbying and
advocating to influence legislation at all levels,
and our representation in various fora that
influence grants and other financial aspects.
As we have addressed this multiplicity of foci, it
is indeed pleasing to report that we achieved an
impressive 100% of our 35 performance targets.
Many thanks go to the members of staff whose
sterling efforts made this possible.
From a financial point of view, SALGA’s
performance in 2016/17 was equally noteworthy.
We received the fifth consecutive clean
audit with 100% achievement of our targets.
Revenue increased by 16.8%, while cash and
cash equivalents was 8.4% higher than at the
corresponding period in 2016, and total assets
increased by 16.4%.
SALGA ANNUAL REPORT
2016/17