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Chairperson;
Premier Winkie Direko;
Members of the Executive Council responsible for Local Government;
Your Lordship the Mayors;
Members of Parliament;
Councillors;
Representative of various government departments;
Esteemed Guests;
Ladies and Gentlemen;

The 05 December 2000 brought us to the end of the beginning. On the day, we inaugurated a new local government system based on a new geography. We are now at a new beginning, which allows us to contemplate quantum questions.

Gathered in this Conference are men and women, elected public representatives of our people from all corners of our land. You come form diverse parts of our country: downtowns and townships, urban and rural areas, district and metropolitan municipalities. You are products of our past geography of centrality and marginality; a geography which was characterised by:

* Racially segregated milieu and
* Exclusion of the many from spatial frames which offer hope for a better life.
* In other words, the hallmark of the old order was the consignment of millions to low-income areas starved of life-sustaining resources.

Your diversity in background is the strength of this meeting. Your exchange of insights holds the possibility to release a quality of enlightenment capable of bringing into life, our normative hope for good governance.

Ladies and Gentlemen, ours is a country in continuing transition. The mutation of our structures of governance is informed by the imperative of bringing the needs of the previously disadvantaged at the centre of development. This is the context in which SALGA has to refocus its role in governance. SALGA, as an institution of governance, shares with the rest of government, the responsibility for good governance and sustainable socio-economic development to our people and our country. It, (SALGA), has to use its statutory status to define a role for itself as an active agency in all areas germane to the governance and development of the country.

Whilst the statutory recognition of SALGA is no doubt important, what is of more importance is the recognition of SALGA by local government itself, locally and internationally. To earn that recognition SALGA must place itself at the cutting edge of innovations regarding those governmental and developmental issues which shape the mandate of local government.

This Conference therefore, should be treated as a moment to launch an intensely analytical reflection regarding both the direction to be taken by the organisation as well as on the resources that will be required for the organisation to reach its destination. In whatever you do, you must realise that municipalities all over the country have high expectations of you and your organisation. They want a SALGA, which, despite the abundance of trees in the bush, is able to pick the wood.

You will recall that we met last year at a national conference to reflect on the post-demarcation challenges. We agreed then, that for sometime after the elections, our country would have a local government system, which is inchoate. We also agreed that the administrative systems of the newly amalgamated municipalities would take time to solidify and to settle. This is a reality, which places on the agenda, the need for a programme of refining our local government system.

SALGA has to become a central player in the process of influencing the trajectory of local government transformation.

In this respect SALGA should have substantive and well-informed positions of its own regarding matters of governance in general, and those of local governance in particular. The weight of SALGA has to be felt both in the legislative and the executive domains.

Chairperson, the contestation to influence the trajectory of development also takes place in conditions where we are no longer the only players in our national economic space. Matters, which ordinarily should be regarded as our sovereign prerogative, are increasingly becoming a contested terrain between the international capital markets and us. This process of globalisation has an image and a reality, which are not always the same. The ideological promise of prosperity, which it holds out, tends to be negated by its on-the-ground effects. It was with this problem in mind that we set out to restructure our local government sphere and charged it with a developmental mandate.

We expect local government to make an immense contribution in helping the country to break out of a situation where it is a victim of the skewed distribution of the benefits of the global economy.

For instance, some of our country's cities rank amongst the best cities in the continent if not in the world. These cities have to be helped, both by SALGA and by the rest of government, to create mutually supportive learning networks between our cities and counterpart cities in other parts of the world. These and other tasks were identified at the AFRICITIES SUMMIT 2000, which was held in Windhoek, Namibia.

The main focus of the AFRICITIES SUMMIT was the issue of decentralisation of powers and functions of government. Decentralisation for us must reflect the power of the people to determine their own form of government. In this respect there are already important developments taking place within our country. The decentralisation of Integrated Development Planning, water and electricity as well as district health services taking place in our country represents a progressive contribution to this agenda. An important aspect of the IDPs is the effective co-ordination between levels of government bodies, different sector planning procedures and activities, as well as community participation.

Stimulating community participation is for us, a matter that deserves priority attention. After all, this issue helps to give effect to the ethical dimension of our approach to governance. Its importance cannot be overemphasised, especially in the light of the past unhappy experiences. Some of councillors and officials conducted themselves in ways, which brought municipalities to a negative focus. Such unbecoming behaviour was, in the final analysis, destructive to the functional integrity of the local government sphere.

Another objective of decentralisation is to stress the need for increased mobilisation of local resources. It is important to find ways and means of distributing the financial burden of public investment between the states, consumer-based companies and services, economic actors and local government. Put simply, we will need to find ways of harnessing private capital to the goal of economic growth and sustainable socio-economic development. If there is an issue, which has recently generated topicality and intense controversy, then it is this issue of Municipal Service Partnerships. Many people expect SALGA to play an important role in personifying the collective voice of municipalities in the debates, which are taking place around this issue.

Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen, I availed myself of this opportunity to identify issues of concern to many people in our country. The identification of these issues is meant to emphasise the great responsibility that will be yours to live up to.

As I said earlier, this turning point in the history of local governance enforces a redefinition on the role of SALGA. It may well be that the process of redefining the role of SALGA will point to the attendant need for revisiting the structure of the organisation. In this regard, I wish to express my appreciation for the importance, which many parties have come to attach to the local government sphere. We saw in the last elections, cadres who bring to local government, knowledge gained in the crucible of experience acquired from years of service in other spheres of life and government. This step will certainly improve the efficacy of our entire system of governance, and it will enhance the capacity of local government to deliver to the people, service of good quality.

Government is acutely aware of the necessity to strengthen the hand of local government. A weak local government such as the one we had for many years in this country has proven to be a fetter to social progress. This country needs local government practitioners who are dedicated to the cause of service to the people. It is with a glow of pride and satisfaction to note that you took up your responsibilities even in the face of uncertainty on matters of remuneration. The Minister of Finance and I have been giving this matter the attention it deserves. The joint task-team, which we established to investigate ways of restructuring the Councillor remuneration dispensation, has been instructed to report before the end of April 2001.

Chairperson, Ladies and Gentlemen:

Our country and our people are anxious. They are keenly interested in the outcome of this conference. They believe that through your industry, the ideas of democracy, peace and prosperity will become our cherished inheritance. You are honour-bound to bring their hopes to fruition.

I thank you.

Issued by Ministry of Provincial and Local Government

5 April 2001

m<EOD.