The intergovernmental leadership collective comprising the Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Dr. Namane Dickson Masemola; the Limpopo Province Premier, Dr Phophi Constance Ramathuba and the COGHSTA MEC, Mr Basikopo Rogers Makamu earlier today conducted an accountability oversight visit to the Mopani District Municipality. The engagement was held with the district and its constituent local municipalities – Maruleng; Ba Phalaborwa; Greater Tzaneen and Greater Letaba.
The oversight visit is part of a series of intergovernmental engagements premised on section 154 of the Constitution and gives practical expression to the theme “Every Municipality Must Work”. At the heart of these undertakings is the deliberate streamlining of actions to support priority municipalities, in order to enhance governance, improve service delivery, and strengthen local government.
The Premier as the head of government in the province during her address, emphasised that Municipal officials can through their responsiveness lead service delivery improvements. Speaking to the leadership, the Premier highlighted the important role of Mayors in leading and also changing lives of people of the people. She lamented the silos approach in the work of government and urged integrated planning and coordination. To turnaround municipalities, there is a need to involve communities as partners in service delivery. She also underscored the need to mobilise communities to pay for their municipal services.
The Deputy Minister (DM) gave context about the ongoing visits to priority municipalities as part of the efforts to drive positive change. The directive from S152 of the Constitution is clear and the aim is to ensure that the municipalities are able to deliver on their mandate. Out of 257 municipalities, 161 have challenges; 61 are in good standing; 35 are distressed and 10 are in a worst state.
Deputy Minister urged for municipalities that are delivering services and responding to the needs of communities. According to Statistics South Africa Report, 17 Municipalities are home to half of the SA population.
The DM emphasised that thus far through this programme, he has interacted with 48 Municipalities as part of the interaction and engagement with municipalities.
This engagement provided a crucial platform for municipal leaders to present their progress reports, highlight existing challenges, and outline opportunities for growth and innovation.
The persistent service delivery challenges and institutional bottlenecks hamper municipal functionality. To this effect, the municipal leadership, traditional authorities, and other key stakeholders should collaboratively develop solutions and action plans.
The challenges identified from the presentations included, but not limited to the following:
- Corruption which compromises effective governance.
- Poor service delivery in municipalities.
- Water interruptions.
- The problem of load reduction.
- Poor leadership.
- Skills shortages.
- Appointment of unqualified officials – The meeting urged that qualified people should be appointed to lead the work in municipalities.
- The dilapidated infrastructure.
- The unfunded budgets.
- The unfunded mandates.
- The need for improved oversight which might lead to delayed or none completion of projects which can assist in the improvement delivery of service.
- Poor financial management leading to lack or no service delivery.
- Compromised Governance.
The meeting expressed displeasure in the mismanagement of finances as it leads to a ripple effect on the entire service delivery value-chain. The passing of unfunded budgets was described as the worst mistake which will gradually move the municipality into being dysfunctional.
The meeting also highlighted a number of positives and it became clear that it was not only doom and gloom. A number of areas, especially around audit, local economic development, procurement, etc, has been to a large extent positively implemented.
In conclusion, the leadership agreed on continued engagements guided by the programme of action in an effort to the functioning of municipalities.
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The engagement paved way for the tailored support mechanisms and interventions aimed at driving sustainable service delivery improvements and enhancing governance at the municipal level. An action plan emanating from today’s engagement will be compiled with clear time lines.
The same engagements will be held with other districts as part of the support to priority municipalities.
For media enquiries, kindly contact:
Legadima Leso
Cell: 066 479 9904 (National CoGTA)
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