President Cyril Ramaphosa has called on government to "Khawuleza" and move with speed in delivering services to the people.
“Khawuleza” which means "hurry up" is the name for a new District Coordination Model which seeks to improve the coherence and impact of government service delivery and development.
The President lamented that Khawuleza will address monitoring and evaluation which has been inconsistent and at times vague.
President Ramaphosa made these remarks at the first President’s Coordinating Council (PCC) meeting for the sixth administration convened on Tuesday.
The President said the district-driven model is meant to turn plans into action, and ensure proper project management and tracking.
He called on senior leaders in government who attended the meeting to ensure that their respective budget priorities for the next five years are aligned with the seven key priorities identified in the State of the Nation Address.
National departments that have district-level delivery capacity will, together with provinces, have to provide implementation plans that specify exactly where programmes will be located and exactly when they will be implemented.
The plans each district will develop should focus on the following areas:
- managing urbanisation, growth and development,
- supporting local economic drivers,
- accelerating land release and land development,
- investing in infrastructure for integrated human settlements, economic activity and the provision of basic services,
- addressing service delivery problems in municipalities.
“We must move with speed to finalise these budgets and programmes, get the necessary district coordination structures in place and attend to the stabilisation of our municipalities.
“We need to build alliances with business, labour and civil society at district and local level so that we can leverage the resources of all social partners to meet developmental needs,” said the President.
The President said he and his Deputy will soon conduct district visits to get a first-hand sense of existing projects and their potential for being fast-tracked.
“We will also soon be convening the Khawuleza Forums in districts, which will be the building-blocks and coordination mechanisms for the new model.
“The new District Coordination Model is not something we want to see in the distant future. It is an imperative of the here and now, because we are racing against time to improve the lives of our people.
“We don’t just want our cities to be Mecca’s of economic opportunity, but our towns, villages and townships as well,” he said.
It is in these areas where the unemployed youth of the country live.
“We need to treat youth unemployment as the crisis that it is, and we have therefore developed a multi-pronged approach to bring young people into the world of work in far greater numbers.”
This work, which cuts across all departments and spheres of government and which involves business and development organisations, will be coordinated from the Presidency.
Creating economic opportunity, building the township economy and job creation will be among the issues that will that take top priority.
During the meeting, the President announced that a Project Management Office in the Presidency is in being established which will set up a War Room that will coordinate the different interventions.
“We will require all government departments and state institutions, including at the provincial and local levels, to support the mapping of existing youth work-seeker support services, infrastructure and facilities,” said the President.
This will be coupled with the development of a forecasting model for jobs and opportunities across different growth sectors, Jobs Summit commitments and government programmes.
Concluding his opening remarks at the meeting, the President said the PCC will be indispensable in driving the vision of a more joined up government and must have foresight.
“Let us remember that what we do over the next five years must not be motivated by the need to meet Annual Performance Plan and Performance Agreement targets, but for the sake of this country’s sustainability and for its future,” he said. – SAnews.gov.za
