Mafikeng - North West MEC for Finance Louisa Mabe has identified service delivery as one of government's main priorities for this financial year.
Mabe, delivering the province's budget in the legislature on Thursday said: "Citizens of this province expect us to take bold and decisive actions now to turn around the service delivery situation with the limited financial resources we have at our disposal, because there is no reason to be hesitant in our approach."
She said most of the people want to work for themselves without heavy reliance on government social grants.
"It is possible that we can use the grants as a basic for creating sustainable livelihoods," she said, adding that the provincial government must increase the quality of services that they deliver to the communities.
"We lose people to other provinces during every election due to the quality of services we deliver. If we do not deal with this challenge in a realistic manner we will indirectly contribute to the dissolution of our province," MEC said.
Mabe stressed that the government needs to step up engagement between government, business, labour and communities to forge a working relationship that they can use to mobilise the determination and strength to build a developmental state.
"Our communities should not be exploited on the basis of poor service delivery to destroy government property that is intended to improve their lives. Change is painful but people need not to resist it, once you accept it, embrace and implement it progressively, you will feel fulfilled when you see the impact of your contribution on the lives of the impoverished people," the MEC said.
Mabe explained that the financial management capacity is improving although there are still serious challenges in municipalities with regard to support to municipalities. An amount of R29 million was set aside to assist municipalities.
