Page 70 - UGU Dstrct Mun IDP Report '21-22

administrative support, reimbursements for out-of-pocket expenses and the general dissatisfaction around the election of committees and the selection criteria thereof. These challenges are currently being addressed and the ward committees are now functioning and have the administrative support and the ward committee members are being reimbursed for the out of pocket expenses.
There are 42 Traditional Councils within Ugu Municipality. The new legislative developments encourage Traditional Councils and Municipal Councils to work in partnership on issues of development even though the former is not vested with legislative authority on Municipal Council matters. There are seven (7) elected Amakhosi who form part of the Ugu District Municipal Council and all 7 Amakhosi serve in the respective Portfolio Committees. Clearly in all instances responsibility for decision making lies with the Council and the responsibility for implementation of Council Resolutions lies with the Municipal Manager and the officials.
3.4.2.1 Council
The executive and legislative authority of a municipality is vested in its Municipal Council. The pre-eminent roles of the Council, amongst others, are the approval of by-laws, budgets, policies, IDP, tariffs for rates and service charges. The Council consists of thirty-five (35) members, eight (8) of whom are full-time. Furthermore, seven (7) Traditional Leaders are participants in the Ugu District Municipal Council.
3.4.2.2 Executive Committee Structure
The Executive Committee has delegated plenary powers to exercise the powers, duties and functions of Council, excluding those plenary powers expressly delegated to other standing committees and those powers which are wholly resolved to the Ugu District Council. Notwithstanding the above, the Executive Committee is authorised to exercise any of those plenary powers delegated to other Standing Committees in circumstances where any matters from these committees are referred to the Executive Committee. In line with Section 80 of the Municipal Structures Act, the Municipality currently has five multi-party Portfolio Committees, which are, Portfolio Committees on Finance; Water and Sanitation; Local Economic Development; Special Programmes; and Sound Governance and Human Resource. These Portfolio Committees continue to assist the Executive Committee in policy development and monitoring to accelerate service delivery, as well as the oversight of strategic programmes and projects.
3.4.2.3 Municipal Departments and their functions
The Municipal Manager heads the administration of the Municipality. The Municipality has five administrative departments. The departments are:
• Office of the Municipal Manager - The Office of the Municipal Manager is responsible for the following functions: Corporate
Strategy and Shared Services; Internal Audit; Mayoralty and Communication; Legal Services; Youth Development; Special
Programmes; and Customer Relations Management.
• Corporate Services Department - Corporate Services includes: Human Resources, Registry, Auxiliary Services and
Secretariat, Information, and Communication Technology (ICT), Disaster Management and Fleet Management Services.
• Budget and Treasury Office Department - The Budget and Treasury Office includes: Equity and Accounts, Grants and
Expenditure, Budget Control and Supply Chain Management.
• Economic Development and Environmental Services Department - The Economic Development and Environmental
Services Department headed by the General Manager EDES is made up of the following sections: Environmental Services,
EDES Finance and LED.
• Water Services Department - The following are the sections which make up the Water Services Department headed by
the General Manager Water Services: Water Services Operations and Water Services Authority (WSA), Administration and Project Management Unit.
3.4.3 Municipal Entities
The Ugu District Municipality has two entities which are namely: Ugu South Coast Tourism and Ugu South Coast Development Agency. The Ugu South Coast Tourism (USCT) has been mandated to identify market gaps and needs, develop new tourist projects, attract new tourists (domestic and international) and strategically market the destination. Since its formal inception there’s been improvement in the distribution of tourism spend in the entire district, better coordination of the events that are hosted by the municipal areas outside our tourist hub. Challenges range from lack of skills, lack of well packaged tourism products, lack of well packaged black economic empowerment transactions in the industry and failure to unlock public sector owned land for the tourism industry. Key factors impacting on the development of tourism in underdeveloped areas of Ugu are poor road access,
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