S Mufamadi: National Council of Provinces Summit on intergovernmental
relations and co-operative governance

2 May 2007

Chairperson
Honourable Chairperson of NCOP
Honourable members of both Houses of Parliament
Premiers of the North West, Edna Molewa and Mpumalanga Thabo Makwetla
MECs and councillors here present
The Chairperson of South African Local Government Association (SALGA), Mayor
Amos Masondo
Esteemed guests
Ladies and gentlemen

There could have been no better way of marking the ten years of the
existence of the NCOP than to organise a summit on intergovernmental relations.
This summit offers practitioners and other South Africans of opinion the
welcome opportunity to evaluate the contribution of the NCOP in helping to meet
the national strategic challenge of banishing poverty and overcoming
underdevelopment.

At the heart of the various pieces of legislation which the NCOP passed in
the 10 years of its existence has been the provision of the institutional
framework for pursuing the goal of sustainable development in our country. Of
note in this regard is the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act which
enjoins us to establish the instrumentalities for inter-sphere as well as
intra-sphere co-ordination. Another piece of legislation which is germane to
the subject matter of our discussion this morning is the Municipal Systems Act
which directs that municipal integrated development plans must be used as a
planning baseline for socio-economic development in our country.

As far as these two critically important tasks are concerned, appreciable
progress has been made. In all our nine provinces the intergovernmental fora
which are visualised in the framework legislation have been established. Within
the context of Project Consolidate, we are deepening the thrust of forging a
collective identity of interest between spheres of government by encouraging
national government departments to formulate and adopt sectoral master plans
which outline goals that are to be pursued in local spheres. This has served to
institutionalise the norm of co-operative governance and to create synergistic
links between the National Spatial Development Plan (NSDP), the Provincial
Growth and Development Strategies (PDGS) and the Municipal Integrated
Development Plans (MIDPs).

Chairperson, we are convinced that our national economic forecast of six
percent real growth is not realisable unless our three spheres of government
work more closely together. Indeed, growing cooperation between government
spheres has already helped to improve the quality of the IDPs of our
municipalities. It has also helped us to identify interventions and support
measures which are needed to capacitate both local and provincial governments
with mission critical skills.

In addition, we believe, the necessary fiscal interventions have been made
to enable government to meet its obligations to the people. However, good laws
and fiscal allocations alone do not automatically grow the economy and banish
poverty. The ability to enforce adherence to the letter and spirit of the law
as well as ensuring efficient use of resources, are critical to help us
surmount the enormous obstacles that stand between us and the attainment of our
strategic goals.

As the executive and the legislative branches or our government commence the
final lap of the current term, we take pride in the fact that our democracy
continues to make commendable strides towards fulfilling its central moral
purpose: creating a better life for all our people. In the last 13 years, we
have increased the number of people who:
* have shelter over their heads,
* have access to such basic services as water, electricity and sanitation.

These achievements serve to infuse us with hope and passion about future
possibilities. It bears emphasising, however, that these achievements cannot be
sustained and that further improvements cannot be realised unless we create
conditions for our economy to grow even more robustly.

Following the introduction of the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative
for South Africa (AsgiSA) and the holding of Local Economic Development Summits
in the 46 districts and five metropolitan municipalities, more focussed
attention will be paid to the task of growing the economy. In this regard the
spatial focus of our developmental strategies will continue to be directed
towards spaces which were previously neglected. Similar attention will be paid
to small businesses, which as we all know, have not been able to access enough
capital to grow into mature enterprises. It is when these enterprises benefit
from our procurement processes that we shall then be giving them new
opportunities to keep growing and to help create new jobs for our people.

Chairperson, ladies and gentlemen, in light of what I have just said it is
clear to me that to fulfil its mission the NCOP faces two basic tasks:
* holding the executive and administrative branches of government to account
for the functional efficiency of the integrated system of government,
* holding us, the executive and the administration, to account for the actual
output of our developmental effort and the impact of this on the lives of our
people.

It is my fervent hope that this summit will generate recommendations which
will place the NCOP in a better position to execute these responsibilities.

I thank you!

Issued by:
Department of Provincial and Local Government
2 May 2007
Source: Department of Provincial and Local Government (http://www.thedplg.gov.za/)