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Local Government Turnaround Strategy

In December 2009, Cabinet approved a turnaround strategy for local government. This is expected to ensure that local government has the correct management, administrative and technical skills.

The strategy has been distilled into a local government 10-point plan, which includes:

• improving the quantity and quality of basic services for all people in terms of water, sanitation, electricity, waste management, roads and disaster management
  
• enhancing the municipal contribution to job creation and sustainable livelihoods through LEDs, and utilising cooperatives in every ward
  
• deepening democracy through a refined ward committee system that will be based on the will of the people
  
• ensuring that municipalities have and implement reliable and credible integrated development plans (IDPs)
  
• building and strengthening the administrative, institutional and financial capabilities of municipalities
  
• creating a single window of coordination, support, monitoring and intervention to deal with uncoordinated interaction by other spheres of government with municipalities, including unfunded mandates
  
• rooting out corruption, nepotism and maladministration in the system of local government
  
• developing a coherent and cohesive system of governance and a more equitable intergovernmental fiscal system
  
• developing and strengthening a stable system of municipalities
  
• restoring the institutional integrity of municipalities.

Municipal-specific turnaround strategies and implementation plans will be developed by every municipality in South Africa.

All municipalities were expected to have developed their municipal-specific turn-around implementation plans by 2010. Their IDPs and budgets were approved between May and June 2010.

The 2010/11 municipal budgets are based on these municipal-specific turnaround strategies. National and provincial government departments and state-owned enterprises (SOEs) are expected to align their projects and programmes to the specific local government turnaround strategies. By September 2010, 95% of municipalities had developed their municipal turnaround strategies and were in the process of aligning them with the IDPs.

The Municipal Skills Development Programme is a public-private partnership. It aims to reduce South Africa's service-delivery backlog by injecting skilled graduates and high-level training initiatives directly into local government.

The initiative will help local governments to use technology more effectively and efficiently.

It is driven jointly by Microsoft South Africa, the South African Local Government Association (Salga), the Local Government Sector Education Training Authority and the Development Bank of Southern Africa. It was piloted by partners in the Eastern and Western Cape during April 2010, and launched nationally in mid-2010 at a Salga conference in the Northern Cape.

Source: South Africa Yearbook 2010/11
Editor: D Burger. Government Communication and Information System

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Last modified: 20 July 2011 13:18:38.