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It is all systems go to the 2017 Presidential Local Government Summit to be convened at Gallagher Convention Centre under the “Transforming Municipal Spaces for Radical Social and Economic Development” on 06 & 07 April 2017

Considering that the 2016 Local Government Elections marked the start of a new term of administration for local government, we believe this to be the most important Presidential Local Government Summit, both in terms of its outcomes and impact.

The objectives of the Summit are to continue supporting the Back-to-Basics programme in our municipalities as a building block for what the NDP defines as developmental local governance. To this effect, he Summit also intends to agree on ways to further strengthen the system of local government in the second phase of the B2B programme, in the following areas:

• Addressing spatial injustice and spatial dislocation which continue to impact on the lives of our people;
• Building resilient communities to avoid and reduce the impact of climate change and disasters; and
• To forge government-wide agreements on approaches and concrete actions to advance radical social and economic transformation at a local level, over the current five-year term.

The Summit will review progress towards strengthening our system of Local Government based on reflections of the successes and challenges of the Back to Basics approach, and concomitantly function as the formal launch of the B2B programme’s second phase.

The first day starts with a plenary session where President Jacob Zuma will address just above 1000 delegates from the three spheres of government and other key sectors of society.

The first day will see an interactive panel discussions on the following topics:

a) Panel 1: Intergovernmental and stakeholder roles and responsibilities towards radical social and economic transformation at local level.

b) Panel 2: Intergovernmental and Stakeholder cooperation and collaboration to ensure resilient municipalities thorough focused Disaster Risk Reduction strategies.

c) Panel 3: Transforming the economy of space: intergovernmental commitments towards radical socio-economic transformation.

The above panels will assist not only to shape the outcome of this important summit, but also go a long way in strengthening local government.

The summit will come to a close tomorrow (07 April 2017) with an address by Deputy President of the Republic Cyril Ramaphosa.

Issued by GCIS on behalf of the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs