The Limpopo provincial government had a two day Lekgotla which was held on 5 and 6 August 2010 in the Mopani District. This was the second Lekgotla in the current financial year. It was intended to among others focus on reviewing the performance of both the provincial and local government.
With regard to the provincial government, the Lekgotla focused on aspects such as:
- Assessment of compliance of the provincial departments with governance principles.
- Departmental expenditure in line with recommendations by the Auditor General.
- Evaluation of the implementation of service delivery projects that are outlined in the programmes of action of government clusters.
- Compliance of public servants with the Batho Pele principles when discharging their government responsibilities.
- Job creation in the province as entailed in the quarterly labour force survey.
Generally, the provincial departments are performing well with regards to compliance with governance principles. Reports by departments show improvement on financial management and accounting in line with recommendations by the Auditor General. Almost all senior management staff members in the provincial government have signed their financial disclosure forms.However, 56 officials were charged with financial misconduct and action was taken against 50 of them while six other cases are outstanding.
With regards to municipalities in the province, the Lekgotla emphasised that prudent interventions must be made to ensure the enhancement of capacities to deliver services such as water, sanitation and electricity in line with adopted Municipal Turn-Around Strategies. Municipalities were encouraged to embark on extensive Public Participation Programmes (formerly known as Imbizo’s) to improve participatory development in their areas
The Lekgotla was also briefed by the Independent Electoral Commission that intensive voter education and registration campaigns will be rolled-out throughout the province to ensure that a sizeable number of people participate in the forthcoming local government elections.
After deliberating on ways and means of enhancing the capacity of government to deliver on its electoral mandate, the Lekgotla among others resolved that:
- Government departments and municipalities must strengthen the coordination of the War on poverty by identifying rural poverty sites and developing programmes for required interventions.
- Municipalities must identify communities that totally have no access to basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation and develop focused interventions to address them.
- Public Servants should adhere to the legislations and improve on their commitment to provide services in an unbiased manner.
- Provincial government departments and municipalities must expedite the process of resolving complaints reported through the Presidential Hotline.
- Municipalities must strengthen the capacity of the offices of the Chief Financial Officers as well as Technical Management to ensure that internal systems and controls are functioning effectively.
Premier Cassel Mathale welcomed the Statistics SA’s latest quarterly labour force survey that revealed that the Limpopo province had created 44 000 more jobs, mainly in the mining and agricultural sectors. The unemployment level dropped by 16,2% between the first and second quarters of this year. Mathale made a commitment that government will continue to create conducive environment for jobs to be created in the province in the line with the Limpopo Employment, Growth and Development plan.
For more information contact:
Phuti Mosomane
Premier’s spokesperson
Cell: 082 729 2783
Tel: 015 287 6083
