Date: 05/11/2004
Source: The Presidency
Title: T Mbeki: Address to National Council of Provinces
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA, THABO MBEKI, AT THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES, KWAZULU-NATAL, 5 November 2004
Honourable Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP
Honourable Premiers
Honourable Members of the NCOP
Honourable Chairperson of SALGA, Mayors and Councillors
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you very much for affording me this opportunity to, once more, address the NCOP. I would like to congratulate the NCOP for taking their sittings to the various provinces, thus taking government to the people and opening space for our provinces to interact with their public representatives. This is important because these interactions do ensure that we are better able, together, to address the many pressing challenges that confront our people.
In the recent Presidential Imbizo in Mpumalanga, many of the participants in the different parts of the province raised problems around lack of clean water, electricity, housing, proper roads and poor consultations by some of the councillors. They also spoke about crime, bad working conditions on the farms and unemployment.
Clearly, most of the problems articulated by the residents of Mpumalanga are the same as those raised in other Izimbizo in other provinces. I am quite sure that in the interactions of the Honourable Members of the NCOP with their constituencies, generally similar problems are raised. I have therefore decided that during this debate, we should pay some attention to the challenges of local government as the work of municipalities has direct and immediate impact on millions of our citizens.
Undoubtedly, we have, in the past ten years, made important progress with regard to fighting poverty and underdevelopment in our country, providing to many millions of South Africans, basic essential services such as clean water, sanitation, electricity, housing and health services.
Although the lives of many of our people have improved since 1994, as we know, major challenges still lie ahead. Part of these challenges is that many of our municipalities, which are central to the implementation of government policies, still do not have necessary capacity, even where resources are available, to implement government programmes and ensure that there is sustainable delivery of basic services.
We all agree that the sphere of local government is critical to our efforts of addressing the many challenges facing our communities. As we are aware, we have made necessary advances with the rationalisation of local government structures such that today we have reduced municipalities from 843 to 284.
This rationalisation is part of our broader efforts to transform the sphere of local government so that we have municipalities that are non-racial, non-sexist and democratic; municipalities that serve all our people and have the requisite capacity to provide regular and reliable services to citizens as well as being at the forefront of the reconstruction and development of our country.
We need efficient and effective municipalities so as to deliver these better services, ensure that poor households have access to basic infrastructure and the poor are provided with free basic services. Further, as we accelerate the implementation of our expanded public works programme, we need strong municipalities to work in partnership with other spheres of government. Similarly, the Municipal Infrastructure Grant will not make the required impact if our municipalities are weak.
As we know, there are serious delivery backlogs which have denied millions of our people the possibility of a better life. We are aware of municipalities with large communities that have no access to clean water, sanitation and electricity.
To respond to this lack of capacity, in May of this year, Cabinet took a decision to develop a support initiative for local government structures, called Project Consolidate and constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee for this programme. This project, which was launched this week, is led by the Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Minister Mufamadi.
Minister Mufamadi explained that: ,
Source: The Presidency
Title: T Mbeki: Address to National Council of Provinces
ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT OF SOUTH AFRICA, THABO MBEKI, AT THE NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PROVINCES, KWAZULU-NATAL, 5 November 2004
Honourable Chairperson and Deputy Chairperson of the NCOP
Honourable Premiers
Honourable Members of the NCOP
Honourable Chairperson of SALGA, Mayors and Councillors
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Thank you very much for affording me this opportunity to, once more, address the NCOP. I would like to congratulate the NCOP for taking their sittings to the various provinces, thus taking government to the people and opening space for our provinces to interact with their public representatives. This is important because these interactions do ensure that we are better able, together, to address the many pressing challenges that confront our people.
In the recent Presidential Imbizo in Mpumalanga, many of the participants in the different parts of the province raised problems around lack of clean water, electricity, housing, proper roads and poor consultations by some of the councillors. They also spoke about crime, bad working conditions on the farms and unemployment.
Clearly, most of the problems articulated by the residents of Mpumalanga are the same as those raised in other Izimbizo in other provinces. I am quite sure that in the interactions of the Honourable Members of the NCOP with their constituencies, generally similar problems are raised. I have therefore decided that during this debate, we should pay some attention to the challenges of local government as the work of municipalities has direct and immediate impact on millions of our citizens.
Undoubtedly, we have, in the past ten years, made important progress with regard to fighting poverty and underdevelopment in our country, providing to many millions of South Africans, basic essential services such as clean water, sanitation, electricity, housing and health services.
Although the lives of many of our people have improved since 1994, as we know, major challenges still lie ahead. Part of these challenges is that many of our municipalities, which are central to the implementation of government policies, still do not have necessary capacity, even where resources are available, to implement government programmes and ensure that there is sustainable delivery of basic services.
We all agree that the sphere of local government is critical to our efforts of addressing the many challenges facing our communities. As we are aware, we have made necessary advances with the rationalisation of local government structures such that today we have reduced municipalities from 843 to 284.
This rationalisation is part of our broader efforts to transform the sphere of local government so that we have municipalities that are non-racial, non-sexist and democratic; municipalities that serve all our people and have the requisite capacity to provide regular and reliable services to citizens as well as being at the forefront of the reconstruction and development of our country.
We need efficient and effective municipalities so as to deliver these better services, ensure that poor households have access to basic infrastructure and the poor are provided with free basic services. Further, as we accelerate the implementation of our expanded public works programme, we need strong municipalities to work in partnership with other spheres of government. Similarly, the Municipal Infrastructure Grant will not make the required impact if our municipalities are weak.
As we know, there are serious delivery backlogs which have denied millions of our people the possibility of a better life. We are aware of municipalities with large communities that have no access to clean water, sanitation and electricity.
To respond to this lack of capacity, in May of this year, Cabinet took a decision to develop a support initiative for local government structures, called Project Consolidate and constituted an Inter-Ministerial Committee for this programme. This project, which was launched this week, is led by the Minister of Provincial and Local Government, Minister Mufamadi.
Minister Mufamadi explained that: ,
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