Date: 29/04/2003
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government
Title: Dowry: Western Cape Demarcation Board cocktail function
EXTRACTS FROM A WELCOMING SPEECH BY COBUS DOWRY, MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE WESTERN CAPE, AT A COCKTAIL FUNCTION HOSTED BY THE DEMARCATION BOARD AND THE NORWEGIAN ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES, Breakwater Lodge Hotel, 29 April 2003
The provincial government in the Western Cape is determined to make this a province in which people can prosper and to govern for all its people. You are also in a province co-governed by two erstwhile enemies rather than opponents namely the New National Party and the African National Congress who established a co-operation agreement for the benefit not only of the Western Cape but for many municipalities in this province and elsewhere in the country.
Success can however only be obtained if local government is involved, as this sphere of government is the sphere of government closest to the people and where service delivery is the most concrete.
Our Constitution states that government in South Africa is constituted as national, provincial and local spheres of government. The three spheres are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. Local government is a sphere of government in its own right and is no longer a function of national or provincial government. It is now an integral component of the democratic state in South Africa and generates about 93% of its own budget.
The involvement of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape in local government is there to exercise its constitutional obligation to monitor, support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to manage their own affairs, to exercise their powers and to perform their functions.
All spheres of government are obliged to observe the principles of co-operative government put forward in the constitution. Co-operative government assumes the integrity of each sphere of government, but it also recognises the complex inter-action of government in modern society.
There are numerous challenges facing South African municipalities, let me mention a few:
The world over, municipalities face the challenge of managing viable and environmentally sustainable urban and rural systems. In addition to this, municipalities in South Africa are confronted with:
* skewed settlement patterns
* rapid urbanisation
* extreme concentrations of taxable economic resources in certain areas, to non-existent resources in other areas
* huge backlogs in service infrastructure
* freat spatial separations and disparities between towns and townships
* inability to leverage private sector resources for development, and
* substantial variations in capacity between different municipalities.
To address all of the issues mentioned it is therefore important to address these issues in a strategic approach and for this purpose local government has adopted a developmental approach. Developmental local government is intended to have a major impact on the daily lives of South Africans. Through the developmental approach local government has committed itself to working with citizens and groups within the community to find sustainable ways to meet their social, economic and material needs and improve the quality of their lives.
It is also questionable whether some of the municipalities in South Africa are financially viable and the demarcation process must therefore be a living process as we must continuously look not only at the viability of municipalities on a financial level but also on a practical level. How viable are our boundaries in terms of the communities living in wards and municipal boundaries, how viable are municipalities with the enormous distances between towns and cities, how viable are wards and municipalities when there are skewed income patterns. How viable are the wards and municipalities when the ward of one councillor extends the boundaries of towns and are sometimes hundred of kilometres apart. These are practical problems, which could be addressed in future, but on the larger scale of things the Municipal Demarcation Board must be congratulated with a job well done.
Enquiries: Jan Bosman on 083-7755-312, e-mail: jbosman@pawc.wcape.gov.za
Issued by Western Cape Provincial Government
29 April 2003
Source: Western Cape Provincial Government
Title: Dowry: Western Cape Demarcation Board cocktail function
EXTRACTS FROM A WELCOMING SPEECH BY COBUS DOWRY, MINISTER OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT IN THE WESTERN CAPE, AT A COCKTAIL FUNCTION HOSTED BY THE DEMARCATION BOARD AND THE NORWEGIAN ASSOCIATION OF LOCAL AND REGIONAL AUTHORITIES, Breakwater Lodge Hotel, 29 April 2003
The provincial government in the Western Cape is determined to make this a province in which people can prosper and to govern for all its people. You are also in a province co-governed by two erstwhile enemies rather than opponents namely the New National Party and the African National Congress who established a co-operation agreement for the benefit not only of the Western Cape but for many municipalities in this province and elsewhere in the country.
Success can however only be obtained if local government is involved, as this sphere of government is the sphere of government closest to the people and where service delivery is the most concrete.
Our Constitution states that government in South Africa is constituted as national, provincial and local spheres of government. The three spheres are distinctive, interdependent and interrelated. Local government is a sphere of government in its own right and is no longer a function of national or provincial government. It is now an integral component of the democratic state in South Africa and generates about 93% of its own budget.
The involvement of the Provincial Government of the Western Cape in local government is there to exercise its constitutional obligation to monitor, support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities to manage their own affairs, to exercise their powers and to perform their functions.
All spheres of government are obliged to observe the principles of co-operative government put forward in the constitution. Co-operative government assumes the integrity of each sphere of government, but it also recognises the complex inter-action of government in modern society.
There are numerous challenges facing South African municipalities, let me mention a few:
The world over, municipalities face the challenge of managing viable and environmentally sustainable urban and rural systems. In addition to this, municipalities in South Africa are confronted with:
* skewed settlement patterns
* rapid urbanisation
* extreme concentrations of taxable economic resources in certain areas, to non-existent resources in other areas
* huge backlogs in service infrastructure
* freat spatial separations and disparities between towns and townships
* inability to leverage private sector resources for development, and
* substantial variations in capacity between different municipalities.
To address all of the issues mentioned it is therefore important to address these issues in a strategic approach and for this purpose local government has adopted a developmental approach. Developmental local government is intended to have a major impact on the daily lives of South Africans. Through the developmental approach local government has committed itself to working with citizens and groups within the community to find sustainable ways to meet their social, economic and material needs and improve the quality of their lives.
It is also questionable whether some of the municipalities in South Africa are financially viable and the demarcation process must therefore be a living process as we must continuously look not only at the viability of municipalities on a financial level but also on a practical level. How viable are our boundaries in terms of the communities living in wards and municipal boundaries, how viable are municipalities with the enormous distances between towns and cities, how viable are wards and municipalities when there are skewed income patterns. How viable are the wards and municipalities when the ward of one councillor extends the boundaries of towns and are sometimes hundred of kilometres apart. These are practical problems, which could be addressed in future, but on the larger scale of things the Municipal Demarcation Board must be congratulated with a job well done.
Enquiries: Jan Bosman on 083-7755-312, e-mail: jbosman@pawc.wcape.gov.za
Issued by Western Cape Provincial Government
29 April 2003
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