Honourable ministers,
Chairperson of South African Local Government Association(SALGA) Councilor Amos Masondo
SALGA NEC members
Mayors and Councilors
Officials of Local Government
Distinguished guests
Ladies and gentlemen
Programme director, I thank you for the opportunity to make a few remarks at this important Human Resource Policy Conference organised by South African Local Government Association (SALGA).
This conference comes at a critical moment in our history. This is a time when we are currently undertaking a skills audit in order to ensure that local government is adequately capacitated with the requisite skills in order to be able to deliver quality services to the people more effectively.
The effective implementation of the Local Government Turn Around Strategy will require skilled, competent, accountable and responsible human resources to ensure that local government does indeed deliver quality services quicker and smarter and thus contribute meaningfully to the building of a better life for all.
The theme of this conference viz. “Repositioning Local Government Human Resource Management for the Enhancement of Service Delivery” is therefore appropriate and indeed relevant. Now more than ever before is the time to position local government into the centre of development. Local government is the most important and sphere of government. It closer to the people and is the face of government
Programme director, this conference comes against the backdrop of the hosting of one of the most successful and best ever FIFA World Cup to which local government played a tremendous role in ensuring its success. One of the key lessons of the 2010 FIFA World Cup is that indeed working together we can do more. It has shown that utilising effective project management we can deliver better and faster. It further instructs that if we recruit the right people, at the right time and at the right place as well as train, develop and retain skills where necessary, we can certainly achieve more with less and within a short period of time.
The question is : How should SALGA, as the organised voice of local government and this conference in particular, help consolidate the gains we have made during the 2010 FIFA World Cup in terms of putting in place effective and sustainable human resources policies and strategies that will take our country’s development trajectory to a new and higher level?
There is no doubt that the ANC led government has over the past sixteen years made monumental achievements. We now have no less than 8,6 million households electrified. Over two million houses have been built. No less than 10 million people have been provided clean potable water. A firm foundation has been laid.
Furthermore, working in partnership with SALGA and other stakeholders, we have a better understanding of the challenges facing us. We completed a comprehensive study of the state of local government and identified challenges that hinder acceleration of service delivery which we published in the State of Local Government Report in October 2009. We also went further in 2009 to develop the Local Government Turn Around Strategy, which has since been adopted by Cabinet in December 2009 as the blueprint through which local government and government as a whole can be made more effective and efficient in delivering services. The fact that one of the objectives of this conference is to unpack human resource implications of the LGTAS and develop appropriate responses is quite refreshing and encouraging.
Programme director, I am heartened to report that through the sterling work of the Mayors, Councillors and officials, supported by CoGTA, the provincial governments, and the leadership of SALGA over the past six months, no less than 95% of municipalities have since developed their government Municipal Turn Around Strategies and are in the process of ensuring alignment with the Integrated Development Plans (IDP’s).
Slowly but surely systems are being put in place. Corruption and maladministration is being uprooted and culprits are being apprehended in areas such as Madibeng in the North West. Service delivery in terms of access to clean water is being improved in Balfour, Mpumalanga. Financial management in line with operation clean audits is beginning to bear fruit in some municipalities in the Eastern Cape. Hard work and commitment is beginning to bear fruit. We need to keep our feet on the pedestal and not relent.
We have also began to undertake a comprehensive legislative review process within local government including the amendment of the Municipal Systems Act and the municipal structures Act with a view of creating an enabling legislative and policy environment for local government to deliver in a professional manner.
I am excited by the fact that we have also made strides in terms of ensuring that in line with the delivery agreement on outcome nine signed between myself and the President of the Republic, Cde. Jacob Zuma on 29 May 2010, we are about to sign delivery agreements with the MEC’s for local government in September 2010 who in turn will sign agreements with the Mayors.
We are also currently working with National Treasury to review the Intergovernmental Fiscal Relations System in South Africa in order to ensure adequate and appropriate funding for LG that will enhance a developmental local government.
Programme director, Local Government is indeed turning the corner. Now more than ever before, cooperation between the various spheres of government in order to deliver quality services is being strengthened.
As we move towards the celebration of the 10th anniversary of democratic local government on 5 December 2010, as well as the 2011 local government elections, our communities will have high expectations for improved service delivery. I have no doubt we will live up to that challenge.
To deliver quality services to the people will require a local government cadre of a special type. These must be skilled and competent cadres capable of delivering. Cadres who are servants of the people and who work selflessly and diligently.
Local government needs a cadre of a special type who is prepared to account to the people at all times. We need a cadre who is committed to rooting out corruption and ensure good governance. Cadres who will ensure people have access to basic services such as water electricity, sanitation and that decent jobs. A cadre who will work tirelessly to ensure that there are decent jobs, decent human settlements, ensure the creation of decent jobs, growth of the economy and the building of sustainable livelihoods both in urban and rural areas.
CoGTA has established a new Department of Traditional Affairs in order to ensure that indeed the rural communities and their leadership institutions are given the necessary support and capacity. That also requires those cadres of a special type.
Those types of cadres do not come as ‘manna from heaven’. They need to be deliberately and systematically recruited, trained, nurtured, retained and optimally utilised. Therefore, now more than ever before our country, particularly local government, requires sound and effective human resource policies, strategies and most importantly practices that will enhance the capacity of the developmental state to amongst others, create decent and sustainable jobs, grow the economy, build an effective, efficient responsive, accountable, local government that is able to deliver quality services to the people in terms of water, sanitation, electricity, waste management and the building of roads.
Therefore the success of this conference will be measured by the extent to which it responds meaningfully to the building of that cadre of a special type for local government in the short, medium to long term. It is indeed a monumental yet necessary and noble task that we all need to tackle boldly. It is a task that will require that we work together in partnership with all sectors of society and make local government everybody’s business.
Now more than ever before we need to ensure that we build a better sustainable relationship with the labour movement in order to effectively tackle the human resource challenges facing local government.
At least six posts should exist in every municipality:
1. Municipal Manager
2. Chief Financial Officer
3. Engineer
4. Planner
5. Communicator
6. Human Resource Manager
The professionalisation of local government administration has become more critical than ever before in order to ensure stability and good functioning of local government. We need to engage with the matter head on. Those who will be going to the National General Council of the ruling party should ensure that this matter is discussed and resolved with a sense of urgency it deserves.
I have no doubt that this conference and indeed SALGA as a whole will be equal to that task. I wish the conference successful deliberations and look forward to the concrete resolutions that will ensure that we develop a cadre of special type who will make that we achieve the goal of building an effective, efficient, accountable and responsive local government and thus enhance the building of a better life for all.
Thank you.
Source: Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
