Introduction
Honourable Chairperson,
Cabinet Ministers,
Distinguished Members of this House,
Honourable Premiers,
MEC’s, Executive Mayors,
Mayors and Councillors,
Traditional Leaders present,
Chairpersons of Entities,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen.
We are honoured to present to this august House, the integrated Budget Vote for the Departments of Cooperative Governance (DCoG) and Traditional Affairs (DTA) for the financial year 2011/12. As we meet today, it is with deep sadness that we are meeting under the shadow of the passing away of one of our towering giants in the liberation movement and the country. May the soul of Ma Sisulu find eternal peace. May the values she dedicated her life to, be the beacon that shows direction to all leadership in all spheres of government and other sectors of society across the nation.
Chairperson, we are also meeting here today with the memory of the recent local government elections still fresh in our minds. New leadership is assuming office in municipal councils in cities and towns across the country. The renewed focus on accelerated service delivery should be a call to immediate action on all of us in national, provincial and local government.
The Departments of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs’ priorities for the 2011/12 financial year are streamlined to achieve the mandate just received from the electorate during the local government elections. The two departments have managed to align their programmes with a new vision and extended mandate of the Ministry of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs and are ready to support local government with increased vigour.
Government remains committed to build on the progress that we have made in realising our vision of a better life for all. A number of flagship projects and critical interventions have been identified to give effect to the department’s mandate.
Clean cities and towns
After the successful roll out of the Clean Cities and Towns Programme in three municipalities the Eastern Cape Province earlier this year, this programme will be further rolled out to other cities and towns. The objective is to promote environmental health and programmes to change waste into wealth, particularly the recycling of waste and refuse removal initiatives. These will include the installation of refuse bins in our communities.
Operation Clean Audit 2014 campaign
The ”Operation Clean Audit 2014” campaign will be further intensified to promote unqualified audits by 2014. The improvement of results in 2009/10 from 2008/09 was encouraging, but still more needs to be done. The department will further strengthen its relationship with the Auditor General and continue collaborating with provinces with regards to the support and monitoring of municipalities to improve on their audit outcomes.
Business Adopt-a-Municipality
During 2011/12 the focus of the Business Adopt a Municipality initiative will be more on facilitating further engagement with the business sector and State Owned Enterprises to support municipalities with institutional and service delivery challenges. Infrastructure backlogs and service delivery challenges in the country call for more creative solutions, and stronger partnerships with the private and other sectors of society to find lasting solutions for our people.
Inspectorate
An Inspectorate to fight Fraud and Corruption in municipalities has been established. This will collaborate and complement the ongoing work done by the Department of Public Service and Administration (DPSA), The Presidency and other stakeholders in this regard. In order for the Inspectorate to be successful in its work, it is crucial to coordinate with provincial anti-corruption units and forums. Support and cooperation of elected and appointed officials in municipalities will also be key in combating corruption at the local government sphere.
Policy papers on Cooperative Governance and Local Government
Work on a Policy Paper on Cooperative Governance will continue during the 2011/12 financial year to develop a governance model that assists in the conduct of cooperative governance and bringing government closer to the people. The overall object of the Policy Paper on Cooperative Governance is to propose a number of adjustments and reforms to facilitate improved service delivery, performance and accountability of the system as a whole, thereby ensuring that available resources are most productively implemented for development.
This work will run in parallel with an updated policy paper on developmental local government. The Policy Paper on Local Government aims to assess progress made thus far in democratising our society through the achievement of a responsive, accountable, effective and efficient local government system within the context of a developmental state.
Outcome 9 implementation and priorities for 2011/12
Honourable Chairperson, the Delivery Agreement for Outcome 9 is about achieving a responsive, accountable, effective and efficient local governance system. Seven (7) outputs will be used as a measure to implement the Delivery Agreement, and the first three are:
1. Differentiated approach to municipal finance, planning and support
A differentiated approach to managing service delivery through interventions in municipal financing, planning and support, underlies several of the sub-output areas. In this regard a policy framework to bring intergovernmental coherence to the approach is being developed. This will include the concept of ‘segmentation’ of municipalities, a revised Integrated Development Planning (IDP) Framework to bring critical focus to the priority service delivery areas, a simplified revenue plan for poorer-performing or more vulnerable entities, and further studies on the governance options for viable and non-viable municipalities. Approximately 70 smaller local municipalities have already been targeted for this.
2. Access to basic services
The emphasis during the 2011/12 financial year will be to strengthen support to municipalities to ensure access to quality basic services. The department will also work together with municipalities who are under-spending on infrastructure, to turn the situation around.
Although service delivery challenges exist, I am proud to announce that in the last financial year, the department has achieved its targets of increasing access to basic services, and, in particular, of rolling out water and sanitation to more poor households.
Preparatory work for the establishment of the special purpose vehicle (SPV), under the name Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA), has been completed. This entails the development of an underlying strategy as well as the development of the business case and feasibility study. The Agency is in the process of being established.
For the current financial year, we are planning to identify and support 30 of the worst performing municipalities in terms of infrastructure development and management. We will also build a more effective monitoring system to ensure timeous identification of areas of poor delivery as well as ensure better quantity and quality of infrastructure development.
Honourable Chairperson, we are also in the process of developing a technical capacity building and skills development programme in conjunction with tertiary and Further Education and Training institutions towards building the capacity of poor, weak and rural municipalities in the areas of engineering and artisans. This programme is also designed to address skills challenges within the sector generally.
Siyenza Manje
With regards to Siyenza Manje, in an attempt to ensure better coordination of technical support programmes provided to municipalities as per the department’s strategy, government took a decision to integrate Siyenza Manje with the new technical programme of our department. We will redesign the programme to ensure that these engineers also mentor young professionals deployed in municipalities.
3. Local Economic Development and Community Work Programme
The Community Work Programme (CWP) aims to provide an employment safety net, by providing a minimum level of regular work opportunities to participants, with a predictable number of days of work provided per month. Currently the programme provides two days of work a week, eight days a month and 100 days a year per participant at a wage rate of R60.00 per day. An amount of R647, 899,000 will be spent on the implementation of the programme for 2011/12.
Within the context of the New Growth Path, the department will, in this financial year, remodel the framework and approach to Local Economic Development to also place the private sector at the core. The main aim is to promote and support private sector driven catalytic business ventures and programmes, which can support job creation on a large scale.
We also recognise that the small, medium and micro-enterprise (SMME) sector, emerging farmers and cooperatives have a critical role to play in job creation and that they need to be mobilised. Our view is that this sector should benefit directly from the value chain and other beneficiation and downstream activities created from this renewed focus on the private sector as drivers of economic development at a local level. We will further upscale our interventions and support to cooperatives in particular.
Honourable Chairperson, the sixth output on the delivery agreement is about improving the financial and administrative capability of municipalities.
The 2011 Amendment Bill to the Municipal Systems Act focuses on strengthening the Minister’s powers to regulate Human Resource matters in local government, among its objectives. The purpose is to professionalise municipal administration and set uniform norms and standards regarding municipal administration. As first steps towards a recruitment and retention strategy for specific occupations and professions in local government, three draft frameworks have been developed, which are: (1) a coordination framework for the deployment of professionals and scarce skills at local government, (2) a capacity building plan for local government, and (3) a job classification for local government.
Under the Legislative programme for 2011/12
The following Bills and amendments to legislation will be introduced in Parliament in the 2011/12 financial period:
Municipal Property Rates Amendment Bill, 2011
The amendment will provide for a more equitable and transparent system of rating of different property categories with strengthened regulatory provisions that protect against excessive rating in the interest of a stable macro economy; protection of the vulnerable through a fairer treatment of those who cannot afford to pay rates.
Monitoring, Support and Intervention Bill, 2011
The Bill makes provision for the supervision of provinces and municipalities, including both the monitoring and intervening in a municipality when executive obligations are not fulfilled and the provision of targeted national or provincial support.
National Traditional Affairs Bill
The Department of Traditional Affairs has commenced with the work to consolidate the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act, 2003 and the National House of Traditional Leaders Act, 2009, into a single piece of legislation. The Bill also provides for the amendment of certain provisions of the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Act, as well as section 81 of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act to provide for the remuneration of Khoi-San leaders and to enhance the participation of traditional leaders in municipal councils respectively.
Traditional Affairs
The strategic role of the Department of Traditional Affairs is to assist the institution of traditional leadership to transform itself to be a strategic partner with government in the development of communities.
The department has committed itself to contributing towards the achievement of the objectives of Outcome nine in a number of ways. Firstly, through a consultative process with traditional leaders, National, Provincial and Local Houses of Traditional Leaders, the department has sought to facilitate communication leading to the release of land to Municipalities for housing, burial and other developmental purposes. Also, the department supports the Delivery Agreement on Outcome nine by strengthening collaboration between councils and traditional leaders at the local level for development and service delivery purposes.
The department has also coordinated a project on the assessment of the state of governance within the area of traditional affairs. To date, six provincial assessments have been conducted and the process is currently underway to analyse data from provinces and develop a province specific, and one composite national report.
The relations between traditional councils and municipalities need to be improved. Both municipalities and traditional councils need to respect their respective status and roles. They have to be better informed about the policy and legislation that defines their roles and relationships. They also need to see the potential of mutually beneficial relationships. If municipalities and traditional councils develop effective relationships, service delivery and development can be significantly advanced in rural areas, where the biggest challenges are.
Within the system of cooperative governance, each sphere of government needs to work with the other to achieve the developmental outcomes required to ensure a better life for all. We also acknowledge the important role of the Legislature to keep the Executive to account and in this regard we acknowledge the important contribution made by initiatives such as the Parliamentary Ad Hoc Committee on Service Delivery.
We also challenge members of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) at this occasion to ensure that there is vigilance in oversight and that the unique mandate of this House to allow the provinces and local government to participate in policy making are further enhanced. Let us all make our contribution to ensure that Local Government is indeed Everybody’s Business!
Ngiyabonga.
