The President's Coordinating Council, (PCC), bringing together Premiers, South African Local Government Association representatives and ministers representing cross-cutting national departments, met today in the Union Buildings in Pretoria, on 26 November 2010.
The meeting dealt with the following issues:
Legislation impeding service delivery
At the May 2010 meeting of the PCC a decision was taken that there be a review of laws that impede service delivery with a view of amending those laws so that service delivery can be improved.
Several steps have been taken since the PCC took that decision in May 2010. In the first instance, provincial and national departments were invited by the Department of Cooperative Governance to submit laws, which in their points of view hampered service delivery.
A workshop was also convened in August 2010 to provide a platform for national and provincial departments to discuss the laws that have been identified to be impeding service delivery.
An Interdepartmental Legislative Review Committee was also established to look closely at the laws that had been identified. The work of the committee resulted to about 350 provisions in existing laws and 30 pieces of legislation being identified for contributing to slow service delivery.
Relevant departments and provinces were requested to submit a timetable by which the identified laws would be amended. Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) reports that only the Western Cape and Free State provinces have provided the timetable.
There are laws that are being amended. They include the Public Finance Management Act(PFMA), the Municipal Systems Act, the Municipal Property Rates Act, as well as the National Environment Management Act, to name a few.
Some of the laws that will be amended immediately include the Disaster Management Act and the Municipal Finance Management Act.
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs has flagged the review of the Land Use Management, the Prevention of Illegal Evictions and Unlawful Occupation Act, and the Housing Act as critical to improving service delivery.
Human settlements
Some progress has been made in implementing the decisions of the Special PCC on Human Settlements held in May 2010.
Part of this progress relates to agreements reached with provinces on targets to be achieved on issues of human settlements as part of the delivery agreement process of government.
There is also some work that has been done to develop a Bulk Infrastructure Fund which is a fund that will be used to address backlogs in bulk infrastructure in areas such as water and waste water treatment works. The Department of Human Settlements has requested over R26 billion for the next three years to finance this Fund so that it can be used to address the backlog.
There is also a plan to devolve the housing function to certain municipalities, especially the metros, so as to integrate housing and infrastructure planning and delivery at local government level.
There is work targeted at upgrading informal settlements that is underway. The target is to upgrade 400 000 units over the period 2010 to 2014.
Most of the interventions in the Human Settlements area are still at planning stages. What will be critical will be for the Department of Human Settlements to move rapidly towards the implementation phase of its plans.
Growth path
The Minister for Economic Development, Mr Ebrahim Patel presented the New Growth Path to the PCC.
The proposals and plans in the New Growth Path were broadly supported by the Premiers. There was consensus that cooperation between the three spheres of government is going to be crucial for the New Growth Path to be successfully implemented. There was further agreement that the capacity of the state will have to be strengthened if it has to do what is expected of it in the New Growth Path.
It was decided that the detail of the New Growth Path, including the implementation Plan, will be presented to the Premiers at the Extended Cabinet Lekgotla in January. The PCC reaffirmed the government's commitment to tackle the challenge of creating jobs as a matter of urgency, and agreed that the challenge will require that government changes the way it conducts its business.
Enquiries:
Zanele Mngadi
Cell: 082 330 114
Zizi Kodwa
Cell: 082 330 4910
Source: The Presidency
