Johannesburg - Gauteng Premier Nomvula Mokonyane on Monday told the legislature that she had had a meeting with mayors and municipal managers of all the province's municipalities to talk about how they can improve service delivery.
"All municipalities made a commitment and mandated me to state this publicly on their behalf, that they will urgently attend to the improvement of service delivery.
"They said I must tell the people of Gauteng that they will collect refuse every week, maintain water and electricity distribution infrastructure to ensure uninterrupted supply of services to consumers and maintain and upgrade roads," Mokonyane said.
The premier then said she the province will take take steps together with local governments to ensure that they effectively perform these tasks.
"I will therefore be convening a follow up meeting with all municipalities in our province to discuss concrete plans for improving service delivery," she said adding that they would agree on minimum service standards to be implemented across the province. Mokonyane said these standards will bee published so that residents can assess local governments' performance.
The premier concluded by saying her administration planned to train 1500 local government officials in scarce skills and implement revenue enhancement measures for local government, to ensure that municipalities are financially viable.
