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Born and bred in Louis Trichardt, Jacques Smalle (39), is now a member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature for a term of five years.

One of Louis Trichardt’s own a MPL

 
Born and bred in Louis Trichardt, Jacques Smalle (39) is now a member of the Limpopo Provincial Legislature for a term of five years.

In the province, the ANC has 43 seats, COPE has 4 and the DA has 2. Smalle is one of the MPLs and the leader of the Democratic Alliance in the Limpopo provincial legislature.

Following his experience as member of municipal councils in Oudtshoorn and Louis Trichardt and as member of the executive committee of the Makhado Municipal Council, a few governance issues are close to his heart.

“I would like to see municipalities with competent management in place who give sound decisions through to their various departments. My vision is to fight for good governance in municipalities and where municipalities do not govern well, to ask for replacement of management,” Smalle said. He explained that, according to the Division of Revenue Act, municipalities who do not implement their capital budget projects will lose that money and it will be given to municipalities who manage better.

“In the Makhado Municipality, the capital projects expenditure is between 30 and 40 %. It should be between 80% and 100%. For that to happen, we would like to see capital projects kick off and the tender and administrative processes finalised in June, the same month that the final budget gets implemented,” Smalle said.

The tender process is something else Smalle feels strongly about. Companies should be awarded tenders on merit and not on grounds of nepotism. “It is ethically wrong when family members are awarded tenders for provincial contracts,” Smalle said.

It was an honour for Smalle to be selected in the number one position of his party in the province. The DA had strenuous selection processes conducted by an outside professional firm. According to Smalle, the DA is the first and only party to have an intensive selection process and placement in positions solely on merit.

Smalle’s portfolio at the legislature is the economic cluster (finance, agriculture, public accounts, treasury and economic upliftment) as well as the infrastructure cluster (public works, roads and transport and local government and housing).

It is quite a challenge. Smalle must gain knowledge of legislation on provincial level.

“This is now about implementing laws on provincial level. There can only be good governance if laws are properly implemented,” Smalle said.

Jacques Smalle is married to Heidi and has two sons, aged 12 and 8. At this stage, the family will still reside in Louis Trichardt, with Jacques travelling a lot.

News - Date: 29 May 2009

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