The Frances Baard District Municipality (FBDM) has allocated 38% of its operational budget towards supporting its local municipalities to provide quality services to the communities in the district. We are mid-term into the 2016/17 financial year and the following are highlights of the implementation of our service delivery targets:  We allocated R25m towards our local municipalities for capital projects. In addition an amount of R3.8m was rolled over from the previous financial year. Of this amount R5m was spend on co-funding towards the upgrading of the water treatment works at Windsorton and water pipeline to the Holpan community in the Dikgatlong municipality, R3,2m on the refurbishment of the Jan Kempdorp waste water treatment works in Phokwane municipality and R2,06m on the resealing and upgrading of roads in Ritchie (Sol Plaatje). A further amount of R17m went towards operation and maintenance activities in municipalities and approximately R5,3m was spent thus far. These funds are spent on maintenance of water, sanitation, streets and stormwater and electricity infrastructure. The rural road asset management system project, which aims to assess municipal streets to enable municipalities to plan and prioritise which roads should either be refurbished, upgraded or replaced, is progressing well.  We are 75% ready to going live into implementing mSCOA and we are confident that we will successfully meet the deadline of 1 July 2017. mSCOA will allow all state institutions to conform to one financial reporting system. During November and December 2016 the district municipality also assisted Magareng and Phokwane local municipalities with the linking of the mSCOA item segment to the trail balance, registration on the National Treasury Portal and compilation of IDP linked to version 6 project segments.  The first official meeting of the district municipal planning tribunal took place on 08 December 2016 to assess and review land development applications.  Our N18 tourism route development project is well underway and we have identified historical sites in Warrenton as part of phase 1 to develop the route. A heritage specialist has been appointed to monitor the restoration and upgrading of the Anglo Boer War blockhouse in Warrenton. The environmental impact assessment has been concluded and submitted to the Department of Environment and Nature Conservation for environmental authorisation on the Gong-Gong Waterfall project, which involves the development of the river banks as a safe, attractive and durable tourism attraction.  FBDM is developing an agriculture sector strategy for the district. The strategy will assist with the planning of agricultural activities for commercial and emerging farmers. Phases 1 and 2 of six phases have been completed.  We are in the process of conducting a land audit and the data collection and analysis for inclusion into GIS data bases as well as to evaluate the billing data base of the Dikgatlong municipality. The evaluation of the billing data base will commence in January 2017. A workshop to highlight the strategic role of GIS for local municipalities was also conducted in December 2016. The FBDM also managed to receive an unqualified audit report with no matters of emphasis from the Auditor-General for the 2015/16 financial year, thus making it the 4th consecutive clean audit for the municipality. The district municipality also received awards for best level 2 accredited municipality, in terms of housing, at both the national and provincial level. “FBDM – the key role player and leader in the delivery of services in the district.”

The budget of the district municipality consists of two main revenue streams i.e. government grants and interest earned on external investments. 71 positions on the organogram are directly and / or indirectly involved in support to local municipalities to the estimated amount of R15,19m or 28,83% of the total employee related costs budget.