To provide for the core principles, mechanisms and processes that are necessary toenable municipalities to move progressively towards the social and economicupliftment of local communities, and ensure universal access to essential servicesthat are affordable to all; to define the legal nature of a municipality as includingthe local community within the municipal area, working in partnership with themunicipality’s political and administrative structures; to provide for the manner inwhich municipal powers and functions are exercised and performed; to provide forcommunity participation; to establish a simple and enabling framework for thecore processes of planning, performance management, resource mobilisation andorganisational change which underpin the notion of developmental local govern-ment; to provide a framework for local public administration and human resourcedevelopment; to empower the poor and ensure that municipalities put in placeservice tariffs and credit control policies that take their needs into account byproviding a framework for the provision of services, service delivery agreementsand municipal service districts; to provide for credit control and debt collection; toestablish a framework for support,, monitoring and standard setting by otherspheres of government in order to progressively build local government into anetlicient, frontline development agency capable of integrating the activities of allspheres of government for the overall social and economic upliftment ofcommunities in harmony with their local natural environment; to provide for legalmatters pertaining to local government; and to provide for matters incidentalthereto.