The Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs (DLGTA) in collaboration with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) will embark on a three day visit to all municipalities of the province as part of implementing Local Government Turn Around Strategy (LGTAS). DLGTA and COGTA have introduced new approaches to assist municipalities towards improving service delivery, through the development of a LGTAS which embraces, inter alia, the Municipal Capacity Assessment Tool (MUCAT).
Comprehensive assessment on the state of local government was carried out in all nine provinces in August 2009 and in each municipality. From these assessments, the consolidated state of local government report was compiled with various stakeholders widely consulted on it. The outcomes of the comprehensive assessment led to the development of the LGTAS.
The main objectives of the Local Turn Around Strategy are:
* to ensure that municipalities meet the basic needs of communities
* to build clean, effective, efficient, effective responsive and accountable local government
* to improve performance and professionalism in municipalities
* to improve national and provincial policy, oversight and support
* to strengthen partnerships between communities, civil society and local government.
Furthermore, the development of MUCAT is the practical implementation of Section 105(1) of the Local Government Municipal Systems Act, No. 32 of 2000 that mandates the MEC for Local Government to establish mechanisms, processes and procedures in terms of section 155 (6) of the Constitution to:
* Monitor municipalities in the province in managing their own affairs, exercising their powers and performing their functions
* Monitor the development of local government capacity in the province
* Assess the support needed by municipalities to strengthen their capacity to manage their own affairs, exercise their powers and perform their functions.
The use of both LGTAS and MUCAT seeks to establish the root causes for poor performance or dysfunctionality in municipalities. LGTAS seeks to understand the challenges facing municipalities in discharging their mandate as well as to develop a clear plan of action to address such challenges. On the other hand, capacity assessment tool focuses more on understanding capacity gaps with the intention to deal with them appropriately.
The three day visit which will be led by senior officials from DLGTA and COGTA commences on 15 March 2010. It will start with all six districts and then follow with all Local municipalities. The purpose is to afford the district municipalities to understand the challenges facing their local municipalities as well as to form part of the teams that will be dispatched to their respective local municipalities. Critical stakeholders such as traditional leaders, ratepayers, ward committees, community development workers, state owned entities, sector departments; business community and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are expected to be part of the meetings.
For further enquiries contact:
Pinky Bata
Cell: 079 866 1355
Issued by: Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Eastern Cape Provincial Government
15 March 2010
Source: Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Eastern Cape Provincial Government (http://eclgta.ecprov.gov.za/)
