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The Democratic Alliance (DA) is pleased to note that the DA-run Midvaal Municipality in Gauteng has been awarded its eighth unqualified audit report by the Auditor-General’s Office for the 2009/2010 financial year. The audit confirms that, during a decade of DA leadership in Midvaal, residents have come to expect consistently clean, efficient and responsive governance and service delivery. Though the DA is better known for this in the Western Cape, Midvaal’s success shows that we have the capacity to be an outstanding party of government in every town across South Africa.

This clean audit assures Midvaal’s residents that the rates and taxes they pay are effectively spent on service delivery and also reassures financial institutions that Midvaal’s loans are secure and risk free. For the Provincial and National Departments of Treasury and Local Government the clean audit confirms that their funding has been utilised correctly in an accountable manner.

The audit, by assessing how the Executive Mayor and Mayoral Committee conducted the performance management of senior officials, showed that the auditor general was also satisfied that the municipality is securely on track.

This achievement follows closely after the results of the Gauteng Planning Commission’s Quality Of Life Survey, where Midvaal emerged as the municipality with the highest satisfaction rating by residents of any in Gauteng. According to the Survey, at almost every level, across numerous ranking categories, Midvaal residents experience better service delivery, living conditions and governance than those living in other provincial municipalities. It is also the only municipality in Gauteng whose residents expressed more confidence in municipal government than in the provincial and national governments, and the only municipality in Gauteng where more than half of all residents were either satisfied or very satisfied with local government.

Midvaal not only has a high quality of life but accelerated economic development and the lowest unemployment rate in the province. It has drawn in major investors and employers such as Heineken and Fererro Rocher, providing stable economic growth and job opportunities for local residents. The lesson is clear: good, clean government attracts investors who create jobs. This is the only way to beat poverty.

Midvaal has been governed by the DA since December 2000 and over the last the decade we have been working hard to bring our vision of an Open Opportunity Society to Gauteng. This eighth unqualified audit shows that the DA is committed to governing well, for all the people, in every province.