By More Matshediso
Pretoria - Corporate Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) Minister Pravin Gordhan says his department over the next few months will intensify the monitoring of municipalities to ensure that they get the support they need to improve their performance.
“Currently we have about 170 municipalities that send us monthly reports on what they are doing in relation to the Back to Basics programme.
“Over the next few months, all of our municipalities will start complying,” said Minister Gordhan on Friday.
He was speaking at the Presidential Coordinating Council (PCC) chaired by President Jacob Zuma at the Union Buildings.
The Back to Basics programme was launched in September last year to revitalise municipalities to ensure that they deliver basic services to South African citizens.
“We were able to indicate the progress that we have made, undertaking further analysis of municipalities in South Africa… [to see] where there are crises and how we are dealing with them,” said Minister Gordhan.
He said municipalities need to ensure that they continue to deliver basic services such as water, sanitation, housing and refuse collection.
“The PCC accepted the way forward and agreed that the Back to Basics mechanism is an important vehicle for the implementation of the National Development Plan,” he said.
The Minister said MECs in the provinces will need to intensify their roles, such as communicating with communities affected by certain issues. He said MECs must intervene quickly whenever there are acute dysfunctional situations in municipalities.
He said MECs must develop stronger monitoring capacity within their provinces to put local government on stronger footing.
Minister Gordhan said Cogta has submitted recommendations to the Municipal Demarcation Board to review financially unviable municipalities.
He said the board will also delimit municipal areas into wards.
“Over a period of five years, you get an inflow and outflow of people so population numbers change, and they have to take that into account during the delimitation process,” said the Minister.
He said the PCC also discussed preparations in terms of the law for the 2016 Local Government Elections.
“We know that before 18 August 2016, Local Government Elections have to be held. The exact date for the elections will be communicated,” said Minister Gordhan.
The NDP, provincial and municipal plans
The Minister said the PCC also received a report from the Department of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation on the alignment between the National Development Plan (NDP) and the plans of provinces and municipalities.
“Municipalities have Integrated Development Plans (IDP) into which plans of the Back to Basics programme will be integrated, and that will be a vehicle for the implementation of the NDP within municipalities,” said the Minister.
He said the Minister of Performance, Monitoring and Evaluation in the Presidency, Jeff Radebe, and his team will look at the plans of all provinces, national departments and provincial departments.
He said Minister Radebe’s review showed that many provinces are beginning to move in the right direction with regards to aligning what government aims to achieve through the NDP and the Medium Term Strategic Framework (MTSF).
Presidential Hotline
Minister Gordhan said the PCC also looked at the kind of calls received by the Presidential Hotline and some of the trends emerging.
He said lots of citizens dial the Presidential Hotline first without having started at the relevant departments or municipalities to lodge their complaints.
“35% of the cases logged with the Hotline are about contact details, applications for housing, and financial assistance… and complaints about the conduct of government officials…” said the Minister.
Minister Gordhan said the hotline is a good mechanism for citizens to convey what works and what does not work in government to the Presidency and government.
“Everyone, including the Premiers, have committed themselves to ensure that government becomes responsive, and that the frontline staff in government agencies becomes more citizen friendly and more forthcoming in terms of providing good services to citizens,” he said. - SAnews.gov.za
