Academic honours for Pedron and Wilson

The spokesperson of the Musina Local Municipality, Mr Wilson Dzebu, and the Community Services Manager of the same municipality, Mr Pedron Nndwa, received their hard-earned certificates during a colourful ceremony at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg two weeks ago.

This was after their successful completion of the Certificate Programme in Management Development (CPMD) for Municipal Finance.

The programme was developed after the publication of the Government Gazette 29967 of 15 June 2007, which regulated that the accounting officers, senior managers, chief financial officers and other senior municipal officials must meet certain minimum financial management and supply chain management competency levels by 2013.

The CPMD modules include modules on leadership, municipal legislative framework and policy, municipal strategic planning and implementation, municipal financial reporting and performance management, municipal supply chain management, managing risk in a municipal context, municipal budgeting and implementation, group dynamics, cooperative governance and stakeholder relations, management of municipal assets and liabilities, cost management, capital planning and IT support, municipal public private partnerships and project management.

The course provides senior municipal officials with an in-depth understanding of the changing needs of today’s municipal service delivery and indicate how it impacts on the economy and service-delivery needs.

CPMD has been designed specifically by Wits Business School, the National Treasury and the Local Government Sector Education Training Authority to support a rollout of targeted skills-training programmes, critical to the implementation of municipal finance management reforms. It also addresses the critical areas of leadership and municipal finance management competencies required to ensure increased capacity for service delivery within the local government sphere.

The CPMD programme is also designed to help students with an understanding of the legislative and policy framework for financial management in local government, help improve ethical behaviour in municipalities, provide an understanding of the role and accountabilities of municipal officers in the disbursement of public money for efficient service delivery, focus on municipal budgeting process for effective planning and implementation as well as facilitate effective leadership within local government.

Dzebu says the graduation ceremony has injected him with more courage to study hard. “I will study until my last day on earth. I will be studying Developmental Communication with the same institution from February next year. I would like to encourage other municipal workers as well as managers from other relevant sectors to participate in this programme, which aims to increase and enhance management skills.” Nndwa also says he is determined to continue studying to develop himself for the benefit of the municipality. “I’m currently studying for the Certificate Programme in Leadership Development (CPLD) with WITS University and I encourage others to follow suit.”

Mayor Carol Phiri was over the moon by the achievements of her two senior municipal officials. “They have set a standard and we are very proud of them. Their skills will benefit the municipality and we hope that other administrators will learn from them.”

News - Date: 19 December 2012

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