Premier Kiviet leads EXCO on an outreach to enhance service delivery

The Premier of the Eastern Cape Ms Noxolo Kiviet is leading the full complement of the Executive Council on a four day Executive Council outreach programme covering the Cacadu District Municipality and the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro Municipality from today to Friday, 6 July 2012. 

The EXCO Outreach programme is part of efforts of the Provincial Government to implement the Public Participation Programme launched by President Jacob Zuma to ensure that government "knows where people live, understands their needs and responds faster” and that “government must work faster, harder and smarter” to improve service delivery and the quality of people's lives. 

The Premier's programme will cover Cacadu District Municipality on 3 to 4 July 2012 and proceed to Nelson Mandela Bay metro political municipality on 5 to 6 July 2012. The new approach to the programme includes a closed session between the political leadership of various spheres of government where critical information on government performance including service delivery bottlenecks are discussed. The closed session is then followed by an open interaction or dialogue with all stakeholders of both the District Municipality and the Metro. 

Day two of each visit includes visits, inspections and/or project launches that are led by the Premier and clusters of MECs, which are followed by community engagement sessions.

Premier Kiviet this morning met leaders of various spheres of government in a closed session held at the Kirkwood Correctional Centre, where stakeholders will also be met this afternoon. Tomorrow morning Premier Kiviet will inspect various projects and also hand over houses at Clarkson - Sundays River Local Municipality. 

Along side the meeting of political office bearers of various spheres of government the Director-General (DG) of the province of the Eastern Cape Mr Mbulelo Sogoni and Heads of Departments (HOD) visited various service delivery sites in groups to assess the quality of service delivery and identify bottlenecks that inhibit delivery of services by government. A list of service delivery sites visited today by the DG and HODs in the Cacadu District Municipality is attached for your ease of reference. 

In terms of the Services Delivery Report prepared by the Office of the Premier shared with the Cacadu DM leadership reflects good progress in various areas that include provision of houses, water, electricity, poverty reduction, while in other areas such as sanitation and unemployment the situation remains negative and getting worse. 

For example the Eastern Cape reduced poverty by 10% over the past ten years and abject/extreme poverty from 12% to 3.9% over the past ten years. Cacadu DM registered 90% access to clean and piped water within a distance recommended by the United Nations. The report also shows that in Cacadu formal and decent housing improved from 27% of households in 1998 to 49% last year, while access to electricity improved from 62% to 84% of households in Cacadu. 

The Premier has urged key partners within the Intergovernmental sphere as well as stakeholders to join hands to accelerate improvement in service delivery building on the foundation of the first 18 years of freedom. She also urged all to heighten the consolidation of government onslaught against poverty, unemployment and sanitation. 

The next Executive Outreach programme visits are scheduled for Joe Gqabi District municipality on 19 to 20 July and Buffalo City Metro on 7 to 8 August 2012. The Executive Council had covered OR Tambo, Alfred Nzo and Amathole District Municipalities in the previous cycle.

Enquiries:
Manelisi Wolela
Cell: 083 626 0304