Programme Director,
Chairperson of SALGA Limpopo,
Members of the Provincial Executive Committee of SALGA,
Executive Mayors, mayors, speakers and councillors,
Municipal managers, Acting HoD of CoGHSTA,
All officials present,
Distinguished guests,
Members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen.
Good afternoon,
Programme director, I am very grateful to be part of this important gathering, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) Limpopo Provincial Members Assembly. As we partake in the debate towards the betterment of our governance strategies in this sphere of government. An assembly of this nature provides an opportunity and platform for strategic reflections on the work we have done in the context of our developmental state at a local sphere. The fundamental question should be how much have we done in advancing developmental mandates for local government.
Our collective responsibility is to conduct clinical assessments on leadership oversight, successes, failures and lessons learned in the bumpy roads we are travelling towards addressing poverty and how we meaningfully contribute to the improvements of the lives of our citizens.
As we continue to grapple with pertinent issues of governance in our municipalities, cognisance should be taken that solutions for growth and development usually emerge from frank and honest debates on platforms like this. We cannot afford to paper the cracks thinking that we are salvaging our institutions from constrains and limitations we are confronted with.
It is whether we allow ourselves to reflect on the journey of development and even be critical about our performance as a sector, so that we do not become complacent but rather be alive to the fact that we need to improve our capacities to deliver.
You will be engaging frankly and honestly because the subject of governance is a burning issue not only in this sphere of government but also it is a serious matter both in provincial and national spheres. It is governance that determines the success or failure of the goals we have set ourselves as government of the day.
The picture of our local sphere of government is that indeed we are in tough times hence we require strong and credible leadership. The times call for all and sundry to hit the ground running in navigating local government to a place of prosperity and integrity. I hope this three day programme as put together by the organisers of this assembly will get our municipalities working to address the practical challenges on service delivery.
In this respect, the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) has an enormous important role to play as the forum at which issues can be discussed, resolved and joint strategies vigorously pursued. We must engage in this manner in trying to push forward and improve our delivery to the people.
This is the central focus of our mission and vision as the Limpopo provincial government and anything else that does not champion the revolution that took place in 1994 is not for this government and cannot be pursued. The ANC led government’s revolution is based on the vision of a better life for all. It is so because freedom, justice, equity and human dignity could not be denied forever and it must not be betrayed.
Programme director, the question that we must ask ourselves in this assembly and provide answers both individually and collectively is, as we wrap up the second decade of democratic governance in this country, do we have a pleasing story to tell? Can we celebrate our achievements with pride as we narrate the 20 year story of the ANC led government in this country? I am sure your deliberations in the next two days will provide honest answers to these questions.
Certainly you heeded to the call to be here because you know that local government is the anchor of our reconstructive fibre in our developmental state. It is the sphere of government that can be characterised as the pulse of interaction between nation and state, through which service delivery processes take place.
Assembled here are public representatives elected under a truly democratic local government dispensation and you have the privilege of building on the foundations laid in the aftermath of the 1994 democratic breakthrough. It is clear that you are guided and driven by the urgent needs of the people in this province.
We should be guided by the kind of compassion and humanity that will not rest until it has ensured that all the people in this province can live in dignity and a sense of purpose. We need to be driven by the passion expressed in the Freedom Charter, which over fifty years ago, set the standard according to which our country should be governed.
We want our people to associate us and this sphere of government with good governance. Good governance and nothing else but taking drastic action where it is necessary. It is about making sure that we deliver on our mandates and we are accountable to the people we are elected to serve.
If we get that right, we will be able to improve delivery to those who remain poor, unemployed, discriminated against and often homeless. We want Limpopo to be a different place a place where all our people must begin to share in the prosperity of our province, a place where equity, mutual respect and dignity must become part and parcel of the social fabric. Undeniably service delivery protests are primarily informed by poor service delivery or lack of.
Programme director, Municipalities stand at the cutting point of delivery and transformation of our province. Let me remind the assembly why we have local government as a sphere in the country. Section 152(1) of the Constitution of the Republic stipulates the following five key objectives for your existence:
- To provide democratic and accountable government for local communities
- To ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner
- To promote social and economic development
- To promote a safe and healthy environment
- To encourage the involvement of communities and community organisation in the matters of local government
You have a key role to play. Your role is to deliver many of the services that can make a difference at the municipal level. You are the coalface of service delivery. But because you carry much of the responsibility, national and provincial government are committed to support your efforts and help guide your structures so that they become efficient engine of change. Our task at provincial level is to provide the framework for change and prosperity in our province.
Ladies and gentleman, we know the challenges and weaknesses in some aspects of your work in municipalities. We also know that we have posted remarkable achievements in critical service delivery areas such as the provision of free basic water, sanitation and basic electricity. We have delivered programmes to extend the social security net for the poor. Some of our programmes have not performed to the level that we would have liked to see, given the needs that we have to address in the province.
All these scenarios and experiences should make us wiser as we move forward. We need to understand that proper planning; sound programme management practices; effective monitoring and evaluation are critical success factors in undertaking major projects.
Our capacity to manage intergovernmental institutional arrangement in the implementation of projects within municipalities has to be improved. Effective co-ordination and monitoring of projects is crucial to ensure that areas of under-performance are detected in time so that they are addressed.
Political leadership is required to provide direction and mitigate the strategic drifts away from the set targets in local government service delivery. Our collective resolve should aim to thwart any deviant tendencies that foreground self-service and self-enrichment at the expense of the work ethos and values that put people first.
We require strong political and management leadership from local government to deal with the worrying trends of under-expenditure on MIG. It will be essential to enhance engineering, programme and project management capabilities in municipalities to ensure that we are able to eradicate services backlogs in communities.
The deployment of requisite technical skills in local government to accelerate infrastructure programmes must be prioritised. SALGA`s support to municipalities in the delivery of various flagship projects will make significant contributions to addressing capacity constraints, especially in low capacity municipalities.
Presentations that will be made here will show the great strides made in terms of providing services to our people. However, our people have not yet received the desired results. The massive increases in expenditure did not always produce the results we want as most of these expenditures have been described as fruitless and wasteful by the Auditor General.
This is as a result of the low levels of governance and accountability; poor financial management and the high staff vacancy rate. This weakens our municipalities and we must be fully conscious of our responsibilities. A critical aspect that we must ensure is good and clean financial management.
We cannot allow corruption, fraud or maladministration to reign supreme in our municipalities. Where it occurs, we must not hesitate to act. Swift investigation must be followed by action against those whose crimes rob ordinary people of the benefits to which they are entitled.
Ladies and gentlemen, what will it take to achieve the objectives of Operation Clean Audit 2014? In two months` time, we will be in the year 2014 and the commitment remains deferred. Legislatures should play their oversight roles to enhance accountability and to ensure that we optimise performance of our municipalities.
The establishment of MPACs in municipalities should strengthen our systems for responsive and accountable local government. This assembly must be able to deal with this critical issue successfully and we must start seeing improvement. The premier has also made a call in this regard and it is an issue that must get everyone worried and concerned. We must implement the local government turnaround strategy in order to put municipalities back on a path of responsive and accountable service delivery.
We must be open to any form of assistance and not be defensive. It is our considered view that the role of SALGA in monitoring and supporting member municipalities remains crucial. We will therefore work very closely with SALGA and take cognisance the entire picture of delivery, which is not only a matter for municipalities alone. It is a matter that concerns all stakeholders and SALGA must continue to help our local sphere to reach government’s objectives.
The process of development at the local sphere of governance, as much as it is progressive, it must also make way for our traditional forms of governance to be integrated into governance processes, so as to improve service delivery at local level. In this regard, the role of traditional leaders is particularly of paramount importance in our advance towards improving lives of our people.
We are already supporting and working very well with the Provincial House of Traditional Leaders to improve governance, performance and accountability. There is a need for all of us to attain socially cohesive and stable communities with viable institutions, sustainable economies and universal access to social amenities.
Programme director, Public participation is widely recognised as both a necessary and strategic prerequisite for good governance at a local level. The integrated development plans and ward committees are such instruments, which facilitate the participation of citizens in the running of their municipalities and the improvement of their conditions.
We cannot afford to lose the connectivity with communities; neither can we allow challenges to undermine the accountability and consultative processes embedded in good governance at this level. We must intensify in this regard because practice all over the world has shown that, if we do not involve people in the processes that affect them, we may not be able to take them with us when we need to.
In conclusion, I hope that the three days of this assembly will indeed yield the desired results that will see our municipalities progressing in the right direction. SALGA is a pertinent component in the process of improving service delivery and I believe that through your work, municipalities will continue to grow from strength to strength.
Let us create legacy built on interdependence which compels us to work together. We cannot, each on our own, address these challenges. When one stumbles and falls, the other should be there to support. We want to see SALGA succeed in achieving its strategic objectives. A strong SALGA Limpopo means strong and viable municipalities.
Strong municipalities are a catalyst to economic growth, development and sustainable service delivery. This assembly will agree with me that SALGA’s role in supporting municipalities to build necessary capacities will add a lot of value in assisting the government to achieve its objectives and targets.
Strong and decisive political leadership will be crucial to give the strategic direction in work of government. I am confident that a shared vision and collective leadership efforts will give effect to creating a better life for the citizens of Limpopo.
I wish you well in your deliberations. I am optimistic that resolutions taken at this Provincial Members Assembly will enrich the implementation of government programmes in local government.
I thank you!
