ANC President Jacob Zuma conferred the ZK Matthews Award on the Musina Local Municipality for being the best performing ANC-led municipality in the country.

The award was accepted by Mayor Caroline Mahasela and Municipal Manager Abram Luruli during the celebration of the 97th anniversary of the African National Congress and the launch of the 2009 Election Manifesto at Absa Stadium, East London, at the weekend.

A staunch member of the ANC, Zachariah Keodirelang "ZK" Matthews (1901 - 1968) was a prominent black academic in South Africa, lecturing at Fort Hare University, where many future leaders of the African continent were among his students. Matthews combined his study of anthropology and the law with an active political involvement. ZK held several high positions within the ANC.  His draft of the Freedom Charter was adopted in part during the Congress of the People in 1955. He was arrested in December 1956, and was one of the accused in the Treason Trial. In 1961 he moved to Geneva to become secretary of the Africa division of the World Council of Churches. In 1966, he accepted the post of Botswana’s ambassador to the United States and he died there in Washington in May 1968.

The prestigious award comes after it was realized that a lot of progress has been recorded in the Musina Municipality as a result of proper planning and spending, leading to efficient service delivery. Excellent work has been done in areas such as provision of water, sanitation, housing and electricity.  For the past few years, the multiple-award-winning municipality has been repeatedly announced the overall winner of the Limpopo Provincial Vuna Awards and they also took the lead in the financial viability and financial management key performance area. For the past eight years, the municipality has continued to receive consecutive unqualified financial reports from the Auditor General, meaning that they are using their finances properly.  

Shortly after receiving the award, the obviously jubilant mayor, Caroline Mahasela, said: “We are gearing to new heights, whatever circumstances we come across. However, winning and being counted amongst the best also brings a very serious challenge - that of maintaining that top position. I am proud to guarantee that we will continue to scoop awards because we have effectively provided our communities with basic needs like houses, clean water, sanitation and electricity.”

Mahasela said one of the weapons for the success of the Musina Local Municipality was proper planning. “We are able to set our defined goals clearly. This has given us clear focus and direction to plan and facilitate the establishment of our priorities as defined by our Integrated Development Plan (IDP). The IDP remains a cornerstone of every developmental municipality like us. We continue to set trends in ensuring meaningful participation of our communities and stakeholders in the planning and implementation of our developmental programmes as mandated by the Local Government Municipal Systems Act of 2000. By creating an effective action plan, we easily provide the blueprint or map which leads us towards the culmination of our dreams.”

Municipal Manager Abram Luruli, who is an active member of the Black Management Forum, echoed the same sentiments: “Another principle of our success as Musina Municipality is desire – knowing what we want. Desire is the planting of our seed. The achievement of our goals is assured the moment we commit ourselves to it. Our incredibly hard work has taken us from rags to riches, from loneliness to popularity and from depression to happiness and joy – because we are committed to our work.  Although we had some challenges, we have learnt to convert our problems into opportunities. We focus on where we want to go instead of where we come from. Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance. We are all faced with a series of great opportunities, brilliantly disguised as unsolvable problems.”