Selby Makgotho

Selby Makgotho

The City of Johannesburg has entered into twinning negotiations with the Sekhukhune district municipality in Limpopo, which it is hoped will culminate in the signing of a memorandum of understanding between the two institutions.

This emanated from the visit by a 10-member delegation from the City of Johannesburg to Sekhukhune this week.

Loraine Wilkson, director of external relations, led the group from Johannesburg.

The two municipalities agreed to explore ideas on how to combat poverty and create sustainable economic growth.

Sekhukhune district mayor, Dickson Masemola, told the delegates that they had taken advantage of the fact that the platinum found in Sekhukhune is said to constitute 20percent of the world's platinum.

"You all know that these precious metals have taken over from where the gold rush has left [off] and are performing very well in world markets. We have it, we must maximally benefit from it, and we need your skills to process matters of governance and give leadership equal to the task of combating poverty and creating and sustaining economic growth," Masemola said.

The twinning programme, it was agreed, would be rolled out in four phases: initiation, development, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.

Masemola said he hoped Sekhukhune would benefit from support in the areas of governance, strategy, the setting up of municipal entities, performance management, internal audit and risk management.

The discussions are intended to culminate in the signing of the twinning agreement between Masemola and Amos Masondo, the executive mayor of Johannesburg later in the year.