The Minister for the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Lechesa Tsenoli, and MEC Skhosana of COGTA Mpumalanga, as well as the Executive Mayor of Bushbuckridge Local Municipality pledged support for the newly launched Manyeleti Development Foundation, saying that working together with the three spheres of government will help build capacity in local communities.
The Manyeleti Development Foundation, formed by a group of professionals from Manyeleti Region, which consists of 15 villages, was launched on Saturday 29 March 2014 at Hluvukani village under the Bushbuckridge Local Municipality. Its objective is to build capacity amongst the youth and assist local government and local leadership, both political and traditional, to conceptualise customised development programmes.
“By our pledge, we will combine officials of the three spheres of government to work together with local organisations. We will identify the strengths, wisdom and assets of local organisations in order to use these to build their capacity further” said Minister Tsenoli.
“We want to work with organisations such as Manyeleti Development Foundation as we do not have the wisdom that they have concerning local conditions. We want to offer support as government, rather than to dictate to them what they should do” added the minister.
The leader of the organising committee Doctor Mashabane said that the launch was a precursor to the gathering that will comprise of all the professionals and community members from the 15 villages that form the Manyeleti Region. “This is where we will use the pledge by the three spheres of government, and find out where we can add value in areas of the communities greatest need:, he said.Minister Tsenoli also said that the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA) component of CoGTA has technical skills that can be utilised as a way of further assisting the Buchbuckridge Local Municipality. He said the public/community participation should be expanded.
He observed that this close collaboration between the three spheres and local communities will improve the quality of lives of the unemployed, most of whom are women and youth. He congratulated both women and youth on their mission to contribute to the economic, social and political development; to leadership and youth development, to the improvement of the quality of education and access to higher education, to the development of small and medium scale entrepreneurship, and to carry out community awareness campaigns in pursuit of the government development programmes.
Minister Tsenoli concluded by saying that 2014 is the year of the Development Local Government Forum whose essential characteristics are working together with communities to rebuild their lives.
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Tsakani Baloyi
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