Deputy Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Yunus Carrim, the Premier of the North West, Thandi Modise and the MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs, Paul Sebego, yesterday addressed about 140 stakeholders representing 34 organisations in Tswaing to strengthen support for the municipality’s turnaround strategy.
As part of implementing the strategy, negotiations will continue with the Sannieshof Inwoners Belastingbetalers Unie, (SIBU), a rate-payers association, to phase out its boycott of rates and service charges.
The SIBU will serve on the Tswaing Municipal Turnaround Strategy (MTAS) Committee together with other civil society stakeholders, including representatives of business, labour, civic, traditional leader, women and youth organisations.
Premier Modise said that while she recognised that some of the grievances of the SIBU were legitimate, their boycott action was illegal, and suggested that it could also be seen as a form of corruption. She urged members of the SIBU to work with their fellow residents and the municipality to improve service delivery and development in Tswaing.
Deputy Minister Carrim said that the issues raised by the SIBU reflected the general challenges that Tswaing faced, and the main victims of the municipality’s inadequacies were the poor and disadvantaged.
“While local government has a level of autonomy, national and provincial government cannot fold their arms and remain aloof when municipalities are in distress. Within the constraints of the Constitution, national and provincial government will now be far more pro-active in municipalities than they have been in the past,” the Deputy Minister said.
The MTAS Committee will also include representatives of the national and provincial departments of CoGTA (Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs).
Source: Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
