Media statement
02 August 2022
Stakeholders convene to develop a structured approach to support municipalities
Provincial departments of Treasury, Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs (Cote) and the South African Local Government Association (SALGA), on 28th July 2022 convened a joint strategic planning session to develop a framework for a collaborative, multi-stakeholder approach for municipal support and interventions. This approach is envisaged to effectively resolve the challenges of municipalities in the province.The initiative is in line with the legislative prescripts on intergovernmental relations.
During his opening remarks, Head of Provincial Treasury, Mr. Ndlela Kunene stressed that all efforts by provincial and national spheres of government towards local government must lead to impactful results. Mr Kunene highlighted the need for results-oriented intervention by the said institutions to address challenges municipalities.
HODs Kunene, Mamorena Lehoko (acting) of Cogta and Provincial Director of Operations of SALGA, Desiree Tlhoale, agree that previous interventions have not led to the desired impact.
They have deemed it necessary, that they meet as stakeholders and re-look at how the three institutions have been coordinating efforts to improve the performance of municipalities.
“We want to do that so in the end, we would have an integrated, consolidated support plan wherein all the stakeholders would take part’’, said Kunene. He added that learning from the past, all stakeholders need to now intensify plans and strategies that would translate into impact – impactful results that seek to change the current narrative. “In the past two financial years, the Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) cited lack of accountability and consequence management as some of the top reasons why local government continues to fail. In the 2020/21 report, the AGSA emphasised that there is a significant number of non-compliance to legislation and lack of consequence management’’, he said.
Tlhoaele said such reports and findings reflect back on the bodies, departments that are tasked to provide support and intervention to local government. “We need to be radical in our approach and we need to be above reproach!” she exclaimed.
All the involved stakeholders came to a unanimous conclusion that there has been support and interventions, but they have not yielded desired results as local government woes continue to worsen, prompting new angle to interventions, new plans and strategies.
Lehoko said the support to municipalities must be structured and well-co-ordinated. She bemoaned silo planning by government departments and other institutions. “The District Development Model (DDM) approach presents a great opportunity for integrated approach. We need to be predictive and forecast the challenges of municipalities, so that we can, proactively mitigate them. We have to strengthen our monitoring and evaluation systems to ensure improved performance at municipalities.
The municipal support framework will be finalised in the first week of August 2022 and implementation will be soon thereafter.
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Issued by: Provincial Treasury, COGTA and SALGA
For media enquiries contact:
Kesalopa Gill :079 548 6352 or kgill@nwpg.gov.za
Dineo Thapelo : 072 218 2559 or dthapelo@nwpg.gov.za
Thotoane Shale : 076 241 8515 or tshale@salga.org.za