THE Kouga Municipality is strengthening its ties with the Cacadu District Municipality to improve service delivery to local communities.

Cacadu Executive Mayor Eunice Kekana, her mayoral committee and Speaker Deon de Vos met with the full Kouga Council in Jeffreys Bay on Tuesday for a frank assessment of the challenges facing the Kouga Municipality.

Kouga is one of nine local municipalities that form part of the Cacadu district.

Kouga Executive Mayor Booi Koe-rat said the Kouga Council valued the opportunity to “close the gap” with the district council.

“Kouga has made significant progress in dealing with the challenges we inherited from the old Council eight months ago. A solid partnership with Cacadu will boost our efforts to build a strong municipality and better the lives of our people,” he said.

Cacadu Executive Mayor Eunice Kekana said that it was part of the district municipality’s mandate to help local municipalities uplift communities.

“The reason for our visit is to gain a clear understanding of what’s happening at Kouga. We will be presenting our reports to the Cacadu management so that they can identify possible interventions,” she explained.

She said that Cacadu Speaker Deon de Vos would serve as a link between the two Councils.

In his closing remarks De Vos applauded Kouga’s willingness to take hands with the district council.

“This willingness to work toge-ther, without getting embroiled in turf wars, is one of the great strengths of the municipalities within our district,” he said. “We, as leaders must stand together.

“We expect a lot from Kouga in particular because we know that Kouga has the potential to be a blueprint of what a municipality should be to truly make a difference in the lives of its people.”