On 23 November 2004, Western Cape Minister of Local Government and Housing Marius Fransman awarded Saldanha and West Coast Municipalities for their best performances in service delivery during the Vuna Awards Ceremony at the Convention Centre. Saldanha won the Local Municipality category and the West Coast Municipality took the District Municipality category for the best performing municipalities in the province. Matzikama Municipality is the runner up for the best performing Local Municipality while Cape Winelands took the second spot for the District Municipality.

In handing over the awards Minister Fransman said: "We are here to rejoice with the winners, encourage those who took part to continue doing so, showcase the good work of municipalities and to urge those who did not take part that participating in this competition will help them to enjoy the confidence of their communities particularly the poor. Vuna Awards are a competition of good performance of municipalities. They are a competition on service delivery and Infrastructural Development, Local Economic Development and job creation initiatives, financial viability, transformation and municipal development and good governance.

Municipalities are at the coalface of government delivery, the first line of government delivery and are the ones who will make a dent in government efforts to bring a better life to poor communities. Western Cape municipalities are faced with a serious challenge of a lack of public confidence. Communities view municipalities as institutions that are constituted by lazy and incompetent officials. This is not the truth, as most municipalities have shown that they are committed to service delivery and developmental local government. We need to change these perceptions. The Vuna Awards provide us with such an opportunity. We need to showcase that there are good municipalities who care for the poor in their communities. We need to show that there are municipalities who take the issue of service delivery seriously."