Director
Dawie de Jager
The Administration and Auxiliary Services section focuses on the following key areas:
The Registry section manages the records of the municipality and is responsible for safeguarding information. This section is responsible for:
The Auxiliary section is responsible for:
The Call Centre section aims to contribute to community liaison and improve customer loyalty and customer satisfaction within the municipality. The Call Centre mainly deals with municipal service delivery requests and complaints. Municipal service delivery requests must be directly reported to the Call Centre and includes:
The Committee section provides secretarial support to Council and its committees, thereby implementing its activities in line with its approved calendar of meetings and adhering to the policies that regulate such activities. The Committee section, in conjunction with the Registry section, provides messenger services, as well.
The Communication section is responsible for all the external and internal communication. This includes communication by the Mayor, Municipal Manager, Executive Managers, Mayoral Committee Members and Council Members.
All forms of media and communication are channeled, monitored and/or compiled and edited by the Communication section and communicated via various systems and channels. The objective of the communication determines if it is external or internal and what method is used to distribute the message.
Media and communication must always strive to honour the Vision and Mission of Kouga Local Municipality (KLM).
Human Resource Management
The Human Resource section is responsible for the management of the entire life cycle of the employee from inception to exit. This process is strategically linked to placement of staff and other employee management processes, in line with the operational requirements of the Council as well as its strategic focus within the ambits of ensuring effective service delivery to our customers. The department focusses on the following sections:
This is the initial process for the establishment of the life cycle of an employee. This section ensures that the onboarding of the employee occurs within prescribed policies and legislation to ensure correct fit for placement in line with the receiving departments requirements. The process is preceded by the crafting of the job description and commensurate processes of job evaluation and grading which this section is also responsible namely organisational development. The cascading and management of performance management is also centred within this discipline.
Immediately following the successful conclusion of the placement process staff members are introduced to the section where all aspects of remuneration and commensurate benefits are discussed and explained to the employee. This section is also responsible to ensure that the financial wellbeing of the employee is managed optimally.
Occupational Health and Safety is responsible for ensuring that the medical fitness and commensurate health and safety aspects of all staff members are optimally managed. The section is also responsible for the holistic health and mental, social, and environmental wellbeing that may impact on the employment output weather work related or private life related.
As with all relationships there are bound to be contractual obligations that requires careful monitoring and enforcement. This section is responsible for the management of employee relations to ensure peaceful labour environment.
Employees are exposed to various training and developmental opportunities to continuously enhance their performance and growth prospects. The culture of lifelong learning is fully embraced, and opportunities are provided for employees to explore all available options. The process is preceded by the completion of a skills audit process which provides a synopsis of the employee’s current abilities which aides in directing the future career pathing processes if any. This section is also responsible for the management of the legislative requirement of employment equity.
Each section as indicated above with its individual sub processes ensure that the Councils most valuable assets, i.e. human capital is always optimally utilised and developed.
The Information and Communication Technology (ICT) section guarantees seamless connectivity and functionality across Kouga Local Municipality’s systems, networks, data, and applications. Their responsibilities span three core areas: deploying and managing business applications, maintaining essential services and infrastructure (including servers, storage, networks, and computing equipment), and ensuring their smooth operation.
The Legal Services section is tasked with the function of rendering continuous, effective, and efficient legal support and advise to Council, Committees of Council, the Executive Mayor, the Speaker, Municipal Manager, Directorates and Managers and ensure legal compliance considering applicable legislation, relevant case law and emerging legal trends.
It is the role of the Legal Services section to provide legal opinions, submissions or input on Policies, Contracts, Agreements, Legislation, By-laws, Authorities, and items referred to Council or Committees of Council, all with the aim of avoiding litigation and safeguarding the municipality’s interests.
The Public Participation section seeks to institutionalise public participation in order to deepen democracy, empower citizens and make the Kouga Local Municipality more responsive to the needs and aspirations of the local community, ensuring constructive and harmonious interaction between the municipality and the community through the active participation of the community in service payment campaigns, the municipality’s budgetary process, decisions about the provision of municipal services, decisions about by-laws, public hearings, etc.
The Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996, sets the requirement for effective public participation in municipalities, as section 152, setting out the objectives of local government, states as follows: “152. Objects of local government. - The objects of local government are – (e) to encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government.” This is evident in Chapter 4 of the Municipal Systems Act, which stipulates that community participation should include:
Local municipalities are compelled by law to ensure that they provide mechanisms for citizens to participate in the affairs of local government. The National Policy Framework for Public Participation (2013) defines public participation as “an open, accountable process through which individuals and groups within selected communities can exchange views and influence decision-making”.
