The disaster management centre, in co- operation with provincial and National Treasury, organised an amount of R195 million for drought aid. A few weeks ago, we officially opened the Sedgefield Desalination Plant where 1,5 million litres of fresh water is harvested from seawater every day. More such desalination plants will be built shortly.
The key to managing disasters is to plan for them, identify the risks, address them, and be prepared. We will be helping disaster managers and integrated development planning managers in all municipalities to prepare disaster management plans as part of the IDPs between April and June. We will provide more intensive planning support to 12 municipalities throughout the year. We are also doing disaster planning for the 2010 Fifa World Cup. This event will put a huge stress on the Western Cape's services such as water, electricity supply, and health and transport systems.
The provincial disaster management centre, PDMC, has, together with all municipalities and relevant stakeholders, identified the relevant risks and implemented plans to reduce them. We need to be ready for any disaster during the 2010 Fifa World Cup event.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the people who spent long and hard hours fighting all the fires during the past summer season. We will co-ordinate the various training initiatives across the province, and we will publish regulations that will assist municipalities to streamline fire services. This will ensure that a more efficient and effective service is provided to all communities. We are doing these things because our children deserve to live in communities that are safe from disaster.
If we want to lay a solid foundation for our children, we must build strong and accountable municipalities. Therefore, we must ensure that our councillors and officials are accountable. One way of ensuring this is to have effective performance management systems in place.
Recently, the department visited every municipality to ask them about their main challenges. This was part of the national government's turnaround process. We digested the information supplied by the municipalities and offered our support. We will also create a pool of experts who can be deployed to municipalities on very short notice.
Some municipalities are doing very well on most issues, but not all of them are. Remember, accountability is at the heart of good governance and service delivery. In the coming year, the department will assist municipalities to develop and implement effective communication strategies. It will continue to provide support and training on public participation.
During the past financial year, all 30 municipalities in the Western Cape handed in their IDPs, and 28 of those met all the demands. However, our people at the grass-roots level must see the changes brought about by the IDPs. Therefore, every municipality is asked to identify a poor ward to ensure that a ward-based plan is drawn up for them. This plan must identify specific changes in the community during the coming year. This approach must be rolled out to all other wards after the 2011 municipal elections.
During the past year, we have been very troubled by the behaviour of some of our councillors. Power has shifted frequently in some coalition councils. Councillors use this as an opportunity to make deals that benefit them personally and disadvantage the municipality. They get rid of competent municipal officials and appoint their own people. We can call this many things, namely nepotism, cronyism or cadre deployment; I call it wrong.
I would like to congratulate all those municipalities where this did not happen. You are setting a good example for our children. You are teaching them that they will succeed in life if they study and work hard. You are teaching them to succeed on the basis of merit, and not on the basis of being a friend of a politician.
Last year, we said that the way to combat fraud and corruption was to prevent it from happening in the first place. I'm proud to say that the department has succeeded in its targets in this respect. Good governance training was conducted at 10 municipalities. The department rolled out ethics management training in eight municipalities. We also provided the system to seven municipalities in the development of anticorruption strategy and implementation plans. Twenty-four of our 30 municipalities have received unqualified audits. I want to strengthen internal audit units together with provincial treasury because they can play such a vital role in preventing and detecting corrupt practices.
The national Minister for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs will be asked to change legislation to ensure that internal audit units report directly to the audit committee in addition to reporting to municipal managers. Furthermore, the audit committee can report directly to the department if the work of the internal audit unit is being blocked within a municipality.
In the coming year, the department will conduct a fraud and ethics survey for 29 local and district municipalities. It will also conduct a two-day workshop with 11 municipalities to assist with the implementation of fraud prevention plans. In short, we will teach people how to spot fraud and corruption, and how to act on it quickly and effectively. [Time expired.] [Applause.]