Mathabatha vows improved service delivery after VBS scandal

Mathabatha vowed to improve service delivery in the province in the aftermath of a decision by 12 local municipalities to invest in the now defunct VBS Mutual Bank.

There are fears overt the financial health of the municipalities, which lost around R1.2 billion during the scandal. 

 "One of the issues that the people of Limpopo raised sharply as they were making their inputs to this speech through various platforms, including social media, is the VBS saga. 

"This simply shows how pained our people are about this matter, the decision by 12 of our municipalities to invest monies with the VBS Mutual Bank was clearly in contravention of the law. To this effect, municipalities were sensitised by the National Treasury about the illegality of investing public money with a mutual bank.

"I can assure you that no stone will be left un-turned in making sure that all those involved are brought to book."

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Mathabatha also vowed to arrest those responsible for the assassination of two leaders from the South African Municipal Workers Union (Samwu) outside Thohoyandou early this month. 

Mathabatha also indicated that some 300 000 jobs have been created since 2014, meaning it has the lowest unemployment rate in the country.

"Stats SA Labour Force Survey indicates that since 2014, the provincial economy has been able to create no less than 317 000 jobs, suffice to indicate that these numbers do not include the figures for the 2018 fourth quarter labour force survey.

"The latest figures from StatsSA indicate that Limpopo has the lowest unemployment rate in the country. Our unemployment rate is currently at 16.5% against the national average of 27.1%. " 

One of the major contributors to creating jobs was the tourism sector.

Mathabatha said: "The good news is that our domestic tourism sector has also been doing well over a sustained period of time, according to the latest available figures from StatsSA. Limpopo has since 2014 received over 27. 5 million domestic travelers, during the same period our province was able to attract 7.8 million international tourists."