Council at its monthly meeting on 28 February 2013 approved a total adjustments budget of  R843 349 469 for the 2012/2013 financial year. The budget is comprised of a capital budget of R130 153 047 and an operational budget of  R713 196 422.

The budget was adjusted as a result of adjustments to revenue and expenditure projections for the remaining part of the financial year as well as adjustments to the national and provincial grants to the Municipality. It was the second adjustments budget for the financial year. The first adjustments budget was done in August 2012 when national and provincial grants for the 2011/2012 financial year were rolled over to the current financial year. The total budget increased by R19,1 million at that stage. The original budget for 2012/2013 amoun-ted to R818 002 667.

The latest adjusted operational budget, which amounts to 84,6 per cent of the total budget, includes departmental and non-cash transactions. If these are not taken into account, the adjusted  operational cash budget amounts to R613 433 601, and the total adjusted cash budget to R743 586 648.
The increase in the operational expenditure to  R713 196 422 can be attributed mainly to an increase in the depreciation budget (from R48,7 million to R56,9 million), and an increase of R1,5 million in the town cleaning project (from R6 million to R7,5 million).

The salaries budget was decreased by R1,5 million while the budget for bulk purchases of electri-city and water was reduced by  R4,2 million. The increase in the depreciation budget is due to se-veral capital expenditure projects that were completed in the  2011/2012 financial year, including  the seawater desalination plant, which has an asset value of R127 million in die Municipality’s books. The operational revenue budget was adjusted from the original budget of R732 562 582 and the first adjustments budget of R751 689 551 to R755 747 419.

Although the estimated income from investments, traffic fines and land sales will be less, it is estimated that electricity sales will be R6,2 million more, in line with higher consumer demand trends.
This has also resulted in increased purchases from Eskom.
Although the adjusted budget reflects a surplus of R42 550 997 it includes non-cash transactions of R42 546 498. The actual surplus is therefore just R4 499.

Council at its monthly meeting on 28 February 2013 approved a total adjustments budget of  R843 349 469 for the 2012/2013 financial year. The budget is comprised of a capital budget of R130 153 047 and an operational budget of     R713 196 422.

The budget was adjusted as a result of adjustments to revenue and expenditure projections for the remaining part of the financial year as well as adjustments to the national and provincial grants to the Municipality. It was the second adjustments budget for the financial year. The first adjustments budget was done in August 2012 when national and provincial grants for the 2011/2012 financial year were rolled over to the current financial year. The total budget increased by R19,1 million at that stage. The original budget for 2012/2013 amoun-ted to R818 002 667.

The latest adjusted operational budget, which amounts to 84,6 per cent of the total budget, includes departmental and non-cash transactions. If these are not taken into account, the adjusted  operational cash budget amounts to R613 433 601, and the total adjusted cash budget to R743 586 648.
The increase in the operational expenditure to  R713 196 422 can be attributed mainly to an increase in the depreciation budget (from R48,7 million to R56,9 million), and an increase of R1,5 million in the town cleaning project (from R6 million to R7,5 million).

The salaries budget was decreased by R1,5 million while the budget for bulk purchases of electri-city and water was reduced by  R4,2 million. The increase in the depreciation budget is due to se-veral capital expenditure projects that were completed in the  2011/2012 financial year, including  the seawater desalination plant, which has an asset value of R127 million in die Municipality’s books. The operational revenue budget was adjusted from the original budget of R732 562 582 and the first adjustments budget of R751 689 551 to R755 747 419.

Although the estimated income from investments, traffic fines and land sales will be less, it is estimated that electricity sales will be R6,2 million more, in line with higher consumer demand trends.
This has also resulted in increased purchases from Eskom.
Although the adjusted budget reflects a surplus of R42 550 997 it includes non-cash transactions of R42 546 498. The actual surplus is therefore just R4 499.

The Mossel Bay Municipality intends to buy the old Rose and Crown Hotel in Matfield Street, Mossel Bay, for the purpose of establishing a centre for the homeless. The building will be leased for a period of 30 years to The Haven Organisation, which will operate the centre.

The Town Council resolved in December 2012 to pursue the possibility of obtaining the building, adjacent to the CBD taxi rank, for utilisation as a centre for the homeless.

The Haven Night Shelter Welfare Organisation was established in Cape Town in 1978 to provide temporary shelter, physical care, social welfare and family re-unification services to adult homeless persons.
 
The organisation’s goal is inter alia to engage homeless people in meaningful activities by training them and involving them in job creation projects. At one shelter, for example, the people are engaged in bead work and concrete block making, with both projects making a small profit. At another the people have been trained in paper making and export quality pottery.
 
Some of the shelters have created sustainable employment for as many as 45 formerly homeless people.
 
The Haven is a registered welfare organisation which has been operating in Mossel Bay for some years now. It has had several successes so far in re-uniting homeless persons with their families, including families as far away as North-West Province.
Approximately 1 200 stakeholders in the Central Business District have already signed a petition in favour of the establishment of a centre for the homeless on this particular site.
Any objections to or comments on the proposed transaction, with full reasons therefore, must be lodged in writing with the Municipal Manager, PO Box 25, Mossel Bay on or before 5 April 2013. Enquiries in this regard can be addressed to Mr N Prins at telephone (044) 606-5110 or by fax to (044) 606-5062.

A budding entrepreneur from the ranks of the local unemployed youth stands a chance to win R20 000 to start up a business in a competition launched by the Mossel Bay Municipality in co-operation with the Enterprise Development Centre.

Unemployed local residents between the ages of 18 years and 35 years qualify for the competition. Official entry forms can be obtained at any building or library of the Mossel Bay Municipality.

Completed entry forms, together with a proposal for a business proposal or business plan of up to three pages must be submitted at the Entrepreneurs Expo, which the Municipality is organising at the Old Power Station at Santos Beach on Friday, 22 March 2013.

Entries must also be supported by an affidavit concerning the entrant’s employment status as well as a certified copy of the entrant’s identity document and proof of residence in the Mossel Bay municipal area.

Half of the prize money must be utilised for equipment, R5 000 for operating costs and      R5 000 for the purchasing of stock. The winner will be mentored for a period of six months.

The Expo takes place from 09:00 and 16:00 on 22 March 2013 and presents an opportunity to all stakeholders in SMME development to share experiences on best practice as well as to engage potential entrepreneurs and to do networking.

More information about the competition can be obtained from Sandy Esau at telephone (044) 606-5000 or 073 120 6278 or Yolande van Aswegen at (044) 606-5224 or 082 296 6199. Exhibitors and stakeholders interested in participating in the Expo can contact Ms Esau or Sharion Louw at telephone (044) 606-5250 or by e-mail at slouw@mosselbay.gov.za

People planning to attend the Dias Festival from 31 January 2013 to 3 February 2013 can look forward to a real show of magnificent men in their flying machines when a collection of interesting machines will bring die skies over Santos beach alive for the duration of the festival.

Helicopters will kick the Dias Festival air show off on Friday, 1 February 2013, when they join forces with the National Sea Rescue Institute to perform an ocean rescue operation. Later on the same day, just before a flyby and skydiving performance, there will be a helicopter formation display.

The action on Saturday, 2 February 2013, will kick off with a performance of motorised paragliders after which a whole fleet of amongst others piston-engined Word War II fighters and other interesting aircraft will entertain festivalgoers. The show will on the same day again include skydiving. Two of them will jump with the South African and Portuguese flags to demonstrate Mossel Bay’s historical connection with Portugal.

Aircraft that will be on show during the festival are four classic Harvard training aircraft under the command of Scully Levin, called by some “South Africa’s tribal chief of display flying”. He will be joined in aerobatic displays by amongst others Allan Harvey in another Harvard, Patrick Davidson in his P51 Mustang, Dave Mundell in his L3D Czechoslovakian jet, Dick Henry in a T-28 Titan, Steward Saward in a Pitts Special, Martin Venn in an RV-7 and the Mossel Bay Starlight helicopters.

The latter will also do a performance with SA Police sniffer dogs at Extension 23 on the same day.

The air show will continue on Sunday, 3 February 2013, with a flyby of Harvards, which will be followed by aerobatics as well as more display flying by the other aircraft mentioned above. Skydivers will be in action again while the helicopters and SA Police sniffer dogs will do another show at the D’Almeida stadium.

The aerial activities will start at 09:00 on the Friday. On the following day the air show programme will start at 09:00 and end with skydiving at 17:00. On Sunday, 3 February 2013, the action will start at 09:00 with a flyby of the Harvards and end with more skydiving at 14:30.

The festival programmes can be viewed on the festival website, http://www.diasfees.co.za.

The countdown to the 2013 Dias Festival has commenced in all earnest and in approximately three weeks from now the Santos Beach area will become a hive of activity for four days for festival-goers – at no cost as entry will be free of charge.
 
The Festival will start on Thursday, 31 January 2013 with the tough Dias Vasbyt endurance walk that will see 700 competitors from all over South Africa taking to the streets and roads of Mossel Bay to walk a total of 75 km over two days. The walk will start and end at Santos Beach.
 
Like in 2013, there will be a music concert on the first night at the Bartolomeu Dias Museum involving not only local artists but this year also Portuguese and Indonesian performers as arranged by the Consulates General of Portugal and Indonesia in Cape Town.
 
On Friday, 1 February 2013 the arena programme will commence at the Santos Caravan Park with an air show and local as well as top South African artists performing on the sound stage. Artists on this day include top names such as Idols winner Lloyd Cele, Loyiso Bala, Arno Jordaan, David Fourie and Willem Botha. There will also be displays by the SA Police Service.
 
The day’s programme will also include the first day of the SALTIC fishing competition from the Mossel Bay Yacht and Boat Club (MBYBC) as well as a fly-by, a skydivers jump at Santos beach and a sea rescue demonstration by the NSRI
 
The SALTIC will continue on 2 February 2013 while the MBYBC will also be the venue for an all-class sailing regatta, an exhibition of radio-controlled yachts and dinghy and catamaran riding for the public.
 
Other highlights on 2 February 2013 include a street parade, lead by the SA Police band and involving the MOTHS, school children, floats, motorbikes and veteran cars and tractors. A doggy walk from the Dias Museum to the furthest end of Santos beach and back will be a further attraction.  
The air show will continue on the Saturday, while there will be a junior and senior lifesaving competition at Santos beach on the same day. There will also be a full programme at the sound stage. In addition to performances by Indonesian and Portuguese dancers, gumboot, riel, bell and the Mama Africa dancers artists such as Luhann Groenewald, Nicky Spears, Gift Gwe, Jennifer Zamudio, Gerrie Pretorius, Michael Lindt and Karlien van Jaarsveld will also be in action.
 
The motorsport gymkhana and burn-outs at De Bakke parking area as well as KwaNonqaba on Saturday, 2 February and Sunday, 3 February are again expected to attract many spectators.
 
The programme on 3 February 2013 will include a gospel service and concert as well as a performance of classical music by the SA Police band.
 
In addition to the abovementioned activities, there will be various static and other displays at the nearby Old Power Station building for the duration of the festival. There will also be approximately 100 food and curio stalls, entertainment for the young and the adventurous, a beer tent and new vehicle displays at the festival from the start to the end of the festival.

The Mossel Bay Municipality has bagged another award, this time the Provincial Integrated Development Planning Directorate’s Best Practice award for Neighbourhood Development Planning.

The Municipality was one of five municipalities in the Western Cape that were identified to pilot the neighbourhood development process in the province during 2011/2012. The other municipalities were Witzenberg, Cederberg, Theewaterskloof and Beaufort West but Mossel Bay’s Integrated Development Plan was adjudged as the best for incorporating the NDP process as part of its long-term development strategy.

The Municipal Manager, Dr Michele Gratz, said the Municipality is very pleased with this award, which should place the Municipality in a favourable position to qualify for grant funding to help it to address the plight of the poor in the Mossel Bay municipal area.

The Neighbourhood Development Programme was initiated by the National Treasury to stimulate and accelerate investment in poor, underserved residential neighbourhoods by providing technical assistance and capital grant financing for municipal projects that have either a distinct private sector element or an intention to achieve this.

The award made by the Provincial IDP Directorate went to the municipality that best incorporated key analytical and business concepts into its Integrated Development Plan. Known as the IDP, the latter is the Municipality’s key planning document and forms the basis for its annual budgets.

In addition to being one of only five municipalities out of 28 in the Western Cape that received a clean audit for the 2011/2012 financial year, the Mossel Bay Municipality also received several other awards in the course of the year. These included being the overall winner of the Most Improved Audit Award in the Western Cape, winning the category for coastal and biodiversity management and urban beautification in in the Western Cape 2012 Greenest Municipality Competition and being placed second overall in the same competition. 

It also won the joint award of the Institute of Municipal Engineering of Southern Africa (IMESA) and Consulting Engineers South Africa (CESA) in the category for water and waste water projects for 2012 for its seawater desalination plant.

The tough-as-nails annual Diaz Endurance Walk, which has been organised by Mossel Bay Correctional Services in conjunction with the Endurance Walking Association of South Africa (EWASA) for nearly two decades now, will form part of the 2013 Dias Festival. The Dias Festival will be held in Mossel Bay from 31 January 2013 to 3 February 2013.

Known as the Diaz Vasbyt, the endurance walk will also double up as the 2013 South African championships in this sport. The event attracts in the order of 700 competitors annually.

The Diaz Vasbyt will take place on 31 January 2013 and 1 February 2013. The race starts at 07:00 at Santos Beach on both days. On the first day a route of 40 km will be followed through the streets of Mossel Bay to Dana Bay and from there via Mayixhale Street, Bill Jeffery Drive, through D’Almeida and back to Santos Beach. The route of 35 km on the second day will take competitors via Louis Fourie Road, the R102 to Little Brak River, Fraaiuitsig, along the beach back to Little Brak River and then back to Santos Beach via Hartenbos and Louis Fourie Road.

The event is open to teams of six walkers each although teams of less than six members and individuals can also enter. To qualify for participation in the national championship teams must be affiliated to EWASA. They will also receive special SA medals. Teams that are not affiliated to EWASA and compete in the open categories will be awarded gold, silver or bronze Diaz Vasbyt medals. Gold medals will, however, only be awarded if there are at least three teams in the category. Only full teams that complete the walk qualify for gold or silver medals. All other competitors, including teams with less than six members and individuals, qualify for bronze medals only. A half-endurance walk will take place on the second day.

Entries for the Diaz Vasbyt close on 15 January 2013. More information on the event can be obtained from Tokkie Geldenhuys at (044) 606-6500 (work) or 0842711736 (cell); or Johannes George Julies at (044) 606-6500 (work) or 0836712552 (cell); or Riaan Meyer at (044) 606-6511 (work) or riaan.meyer@dcs.gov.za; or Stanton Koeries at (044) 606-6559 (work) or 0846934660 (cell). Enquiries can also be addressed to diaz.vasbyt@gmail.co.za.

The arrangements for the Diaz Festival are co-ordinated by the Mossel Bay Municipality. More information about the festival can be obtained from the office of the Municipal Manager at (044) 606-5003 or by e-mail atadmin@mosselbay.gov.za.

The slogan for the Dias Festival that will be held from 31 January 2013 to 3 February 2013 is “Where Cultures Meet” and the festival will live up to this slogan even more next month with the news that Indonesian folk dancers and musicians will possibly participate in the music concert at the Bartholomeu Dias Museum on 31 January 2013.

This was one of the outcomes of a courtesy visit paid to the Executive Mayor, Alderlady Marie Ferreira on Wednesday (5 December 2012) by the Indonesian Consul General in Cape Town, Ms Sugie Harijadi. When she heard about the festival she offered to bring the folk dancers and musicians in to Mossel Bay to participate in the festival and to expose the Indonesian culture to the festival goers.

Like in 2012, the 2013 festival will kick off with a music concert involving mainly local artists. It will again be organised by Ms Joan van Niekerk.

Portuguese folk dancers have already agreed to participate in the 2013 concert while discussions are also underway with a Khoi dancing group. The Indonesian artists will therefore add extra lustre to the event. The programme will also include amongst others a boere-orkes and marimba band.

Although entry to the Dias Festival events is generally free, tickets will be sold for the concert because of the limited space at the Dias Museum and the need therefore to limit the number of people that can attend the concert.

Tickets will again be available at the cashiers at the Municipality at a cost of R25 per person. Further details will be communicated to the public within the next few weeks. The 2012 concert drew a full house and it is advisable to book as early as possible.

The Dias Festival is organised by the Mossel Bay Municipality to market the town and stimulate the local economy. The Municipality received a special Ministerial award for the 2012 festival in recognition of its success in bringing cultures together.

PICTURE CAPTION

The Indonesian Consul General, Ms Sugie Harijadi, with the Executive Mayor, Alderlady Marie Ferreira (front, left) and the Municipal Manager, Dr Michele Gratz (front, right). At the back, from left to right are Aldermen Jim van der Merwe, Emil Scheepers and Kallie Smit (Speaker).

The Mossel Bay Municipality received a clean audit for the 2011/2012 financial year, the Auditor-General announced in Cape Town on Monday, 3 December 2012.

Mossel Bay is one of only five Western Cape municipalities to have received clean audits in 2012/2013 - the others being George, Swartland, Langeberg and the West Coast District Municipality. This followed four successive financially unqualified audits for Mossel Bay in recent years.

“To say that I am over the moon would be to put it mildly. Although it is not known yet how Municipalities fared in the rest of the country, the fact that only five municipalities in the Western Cape achieved clean audits shows what an achievement this is and that there are probably also not many other clean audits elsewhere in the country,” said the Executive Mayor, Alderlady Marie Ferreira.

“Last year only two Western Cape and just 13 out of 343 municipalities country-wide received clean audits.

“The Auditor-General’s audit is extremely strict and goes much wider than just a financial audit. A municipality’s compliance with, for example, the Municipal Finance Management and Municipal Systems Acts and its performance management reporting against objectives, are also audited.

“Although a Municipality can therefore achieve a financially unqualified audit - to signify that its financial affairs are perfectly in order - it may not get a clean audit if there are adverse findings on any of the other aspects that are audited. This could sometimes boil down to a difference of opinion between the auditors and the municipality over the interpretation of a single clause in an act,” she said.

The Mayor said Mossel Bay Municipality was one of few municipalities in the country that did not make use of consultants to implement the Generally Accepted Municipal Accounting Practices as well as Generally Recognised Accounting Practices (GAMAP/GRAP), as required by the National Treasury, or to do its annual financial statements and annual report.

“This saves the Municipality in the order of R2 million annually in consultancy fees in this regard, and is indicative of the expertise as well as the quality of management and personnel which the Mossel Bay Municipality has.

“This achievement together with the constant stream of awards, including for service delivery, received by the Municipality over the past number of years again confirms Mossel Bay growing reputation as one of the best municipalities in South Africa,” said Mayor Ferreira.