Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane on Friday, 30 July 2010 met with mayors and municipal managers from all Gauteng’s municipalities in Johannesburg. This was part of regular meetings between the Gauteng Provincial Government and municipalities to assess the implementation of the Government Programme of Action by both the provincial and local spheres of government.
The meeting appreciated the resounding success of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. The success was evidence of what different spheres of government can achieve working together in the spirit of cooperative governance.
Through the World Cup South Africa has achieved unprecedented levels of national unity and social cohesion. In Gauteng the Gateway 2010 campaign and the various initiatives we took to encourage the people to fly the flag and act as good hosts contributed to this. Government created an enabling environment for the people to take creative initiatives to promote South Africa.
The challenge now is to sustain the positive mood generated during the World Cup and ensure that the people of Gauteng continue to engage in activities that promote the positive things about South Africa and the province. As government, we have decided to adopt all the good lessons and good practice to improve efficiency of our systems and processes.
One of the things that we have demonstrated during the World Cup is the efficiency of our public transport system. Although most of the elements of an integrated public transport system are still being developed, we have demonstrated that the core of the system is in place and is already solving our transport challenges.
The Gauteng Provincial Government and municipalities will work together with the national government and transport companies to make public transport in Gauteng the most reliable means of transportation. Smarter usage of the existing modes of transport – trains, busses and minibus taxis - will be encouraged throughout Gauteng.
During the previous meeting of the Premier’s coordination forum municipalities undertook to attend to the improvement of service delivery. They all made a commitment to collect refuse at least once a week, maintain water and electricity distribution infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted supply of services to consumers and maintain and upgrade roads.
Municipalities have since that meeting developed clear plans to ensure that they are in a position to guarantee uninterrupted provision of basic services to the people. The Gauteng Provincial Government is now consulting with all municipalities to develop minimum service standards which will apply throughout Gauteng. This process will be concluded in September and the service standards will be made public so that the people can use them to assess the performance of government with regards to the provision of basic services.
While these issues of delivery of basic services correctly remain a function of local government, the provincial government will not stand at a distance and only point fingers when services are not rendered. We will work with the municipalities in the spirit of cooperative governance and, where necessary, assist them to ensure that all our people including those living in underdeveloped areas are able to access basic services.
The meeting also reflected on the reports of the so-called xenophobia-related violence in the province. We came to a conclusion that South Africans are no xenophobic. This was evident during the recent FIFA World Cup. When Bafana Bafana were knocked out of the tournament, South Africans - across racial and religious affiliation - rallied around the Ghanaian national team, the Black Stars. The meeting was of the view that the attacks on the foreign nationals are nothing, but acts of criminality. We reiterate our position that police will continue to act decisively against those who continue to undermine the laws of this country.
Municipalities in Gauteng such as the City of Johannesburg are working closely with the national government to ensure that foreign nationals in our country are and feel safe. The city has set up a help desk to deal with the registration of these non-South African nationals, especially in areas where attacks on foreign national have been reported. These are some of the best practices we are looking at and would want to replicate across the province.
For more information contact:
Thabo Masebe
Cell: 082 410 8087
