Issued by: Ministry for Provincial Affairs
STATEMENT BY MR M V MOOSA, MINISTER FOR PROVINCIAL AFFAIRS AND CONSTITUTIONAL DEVELOPMENT ON THE SUMMIT ON THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT WHITE PAPER. 8-9 December 1997 GALLAGHER ESTATE, MIDRAND.
The consultative phase of the Local Government White Paper process has been successfully completed with the two day Summit held at Gallagher Estate, Midrand on 8 - 9 December.
The 2 000 delegates to the summit included Ministers Mohamed-Valli Moosa, Trevor Manuel, Kader Asmal, Zola Skweyia, Deputy Ministers Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, MEC's from all nine provinces as well as representatives of the South African Local Government Association, the Gender Commission, the South African NGO coalition, civic labour and business organisations, traditional leaders as well as academics.
The representation at the summit reflects the fundamental importance of the changes of the policies not only on local, but governance in general. It also reflects the consultative, transparent, and inclusive nature of the process of arriving at the policy proposals discussed here over the past two days.
Following the appointment of the White Paper Political Committee, chaired by Mr Pravin Gordhan, the first phase of the process produced a discussion document containing the initial strategic questions to be addressed in the White Paper.
The second phase consisted of an extensive research process, which included analysis of international models of local government as well as visits to the full range of local governments in the country - from rural villages to metro citiese findings of the research process were drafted into the Local Government Green Paper.
Conference Themes
Conference debated six major themes emerging for the Green Paper:
1. Development Local Government
2. Local Government Finance
3. Metropolitan Local Government
4. Rural and District Local Government
5. Local Government Administration
6. Electoral and Political Systems
During the third and final phase of the process, the deliberations of his conference will be incorporated with other forms of feedback (such as submissions to the Portfolio Committee) on the Green Paper proposals and drafted into a Local Government White Paper to be presented for discussion at the first Cabinet Meeting of 1998.
On approval by Cabinet, the White Paper will be tabled in Parliament, with the aim of it being passed into Law during the first sitting of 1998.
Issued by Ministry for Provincial Affairs and Constitutional Development
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