The latest General Household Survey conducted by Statistics South Africa shows a solid improvement in the provision of sanitation, water and electricity by government while also demonstrating the amount of work that new councillors still have to undertake as they settle into their new responsibilities.
Following a highly successful local government election, the new councillors have come into a challenging local government environment with numerous backlogs and challenges, but one which is also marked by pockets of service delivery excellence as a result of various intervention programmes that government has embarked upon since 1994.
The acting Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Nathi Mthethwa, notes that the survey points to enormous service delivery achievements that new councillors must build on to close the infrastructure backlogs and address service delivery challenges.
“These are all positive results of cooperative governance by national, provincial and local spheres of government with our communities, which our new councillors must build on to advance a more heightened delivery of services to our people,” says Minister Mthethwa.
A Councilor Induction Programme (CIP) which is aimed at ensuring that the newly elected Councillors are capacitated with a general understanding of their leadership role, legislation that guides Local government, key municipal processes, developmental Local government and service delivery has been developed through a partnership between the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and CoGTA.
“The Induction Programme is intended to ensure that the Councillors will hit the road running and it will be further supported with a continuous systematic training and capacity building programme to build a new cadre of Councilor who is committed to delivering quality services, intolerant of corruption, a cadre committed to the principles of Batho Pele and one who relentlessly pursues good governance, accountability, transparency and participatory democracy,” says Minister Mthethwa.
While the Stats SA survey indicates the positive impact of government programmes over the years, Minister Mthethwa has warned that the new Councillors should be under no illusion that their work would be any easy.
Despite a range of challenges that include limited resources and capacity in municipalities, municipalities still have to be commended for the key role they have played in the delivery of government services to citizens since 1994.
- By 2010 94% of households had access to running water (62% in 1994)
- By 2010 80% of households had access to decent sanitation (50% in 1994)
- By 2010 75% of households had access to electricity (51% in 1994)
“This is a solid foundation for our new councilors to build on to as they are confronted with the enormous task of speeding up access to basic services, closing infrastructure gaps and re-instilling the citizens’ confidence in our local government,” says Minister Mthethwa.
For more information, please contact:
Ms Vuyelwa Qinga (Ministerial Media Liaison)
Cell: 082 877 3898
