Swartland Municipality has proven its track record of exceptional service delivery, and this was reaffirmed at the recently held Western Cape Government Service Excellence Awards.
Swartland won second place in best-municipality-in-the-Western Cape category, sharing it with Drakenstein Municipality. It was also won third place for its ECD (Early Childhood Development) Forum project and was awarded first place for its Highlands Landfill.
“Our ECD Forum project was established in September 2008 as a partnership of the Department of Social Development,” said Swartland Mayor Harold Cleophas in a statement. “The municipality, in cooperation with the provincial department, initiated the approach of collaborating with ECD centres, crèches and playgroups to add them to an active database. Creating an ECD network, supported by the database, ensured capacity could be created and maintained with each practitioner.”
Commenting on their recognition received for its landfill site, Cleophas said: “Our Highlands Landfill site is a nationally recognised site for best practice. This site is successfully managed by the municipality and the service provider Waste-Grow. The site is subjected to quarterly audits by external specialist engineers as part of the licensing conditions.”
According to Cleophas, approximately 28,6% air space is continuously being saved through recycling efforts and has already added more than 10 years to the life span of the landfill site, helping the municipality to protect the environment and saving money for its taxpayers.
