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19 March 2008

Theme: Deepening Developmental Local Government in Building a Caring Society

Minister of Provincial and Local Government
Chairperson of South African Local Government Association (Salga)
Mayors and Counsellors
Dikgosi Tsa Rona
Ladies and gentlemen

I am glad to be in your company this evening, to share sometime and engage in discussion with you as well a to add a few points in the debate towards the improvement of our governance strategies, in the context of our developmental state at a local sphere.

Indeed, solutions for growth and development emerge from frank and open debates on platforms such as this, where we can allow ourselves to reflect on the journey of development and even be critical about our performance, so that we do not become complacent but rather continue to improve our skills and capabilities as we go on.

Local government can be viewed as the anchor of our reconstructive fibre in our developmental state. It is the sphere of government that can be characterised as the pulse of interaction between nation and state, through which service delivery processes that take place.

I therefore want to draw your attention to what President Thabo Mbeki asserted during the State of the Province Address (SONA) 2008 when he recommitted government support to Local Government. He stated that:
"We shall continue this year to intensity the efforts to strengthen local government capacity within the 5-Year Local Government Strategic Agenda, to ensure systematic monitoring in this regard, Salga has agreed to provide quarterly reports on the work been done."

The above quotation demands of us to ask: "How do we hold Salga accountable for what does and does not happen amongst its member municipalities?" Although we appreciate the strategic role it plays, what does SALGA need to do on a day to day basis, to enhance the role and authority of this important sphere of our government and mainly ensure sustainable service delivery?

Ladies and gentlemen, our experiences and encounters further suggest that Salga needs to prioritise and expedite the following:
* Intensify support to the political leadership of municipalities by ensuring a structured capacity building and training programme.
* Stabilise political and administrative components.
* Unblock all political blockages with negative impact on service delivery.
* Play a key more in the Imbizo programmes thereby helping us to yield 100% response rate on issues identified and raised by communities.
* Proactively contribute to good governance by sharing best practice amongst member municipalities to improve the status of audit reports and expenditure on key programmes such as Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG).
* Enlighten municipalities about the necessity of key intervention programmes such as Community Development Workers' programmes (CDW). This is a resource we can use to breach the gap between government and the community.

Furthermore, Salga should lead in ensuring that municipalities appreciate the fact that a strong and active civil Society has an important role to play through the identification of local priorities in the planning process.
This must and can be attained through proper consultation during the IDP processes. This will ensure that no room is provided for concerned groups that masquerade in different forms and names.
The need for all of us to attain socially cohesive and stable l communities with viable institutions, sustainable economies and universal access to social amenities, able to attract and retain skilled and knowledgeable people, who are equipped to contribute to growth and development cannot be over emphasized.
The challenges experienced, some through unintended consequence of policy development needs a dedicated and collective action to resolve. Typical to these, is among others the National Housing Fund and the MIG. Whereas the former is allocated to address the housing backlog, it is constrained by lack of available funding for bulk services. This makes it practically impossible to develop sustainable human settlement.

Ideally, MIG or municipal revenue should be used to provide for bulk Services however, it is quite problematic in a sense that most of our municipalities in the province and of course other areas of our Country are not in a financially viable position thus unable to raise own revenue or take up loans.
This is sometimes complicated by lack of adequate capacity to spent even the little allocated funds are sometimes used for wrong reasons, due to pressure to fulfil other obligations.

Programme Director, if our considered view, that the role of Salga in monitoring and supporting member municipalities remains crucial. We will therefore work closely with the leadership of this organised local government to I believe that the "Business Unusual" 24 Apex of Priorities as was announced by the President in his State of the Nation Address, also need to take shape at local government level. These priorities have to become the blue print for development at all spheres of government in helping us to focus on the imperative priorities of the 2008.

Our role in creating a caring society fundamentally speaks to the ability of every sphere of government to ensure that it makes its contribution in its own capacity.
The concept of business unusual essentially means that this year, every instrument of governance must become the means for us to illuminate these priorities, as announced by the president in his 2008 state of the nation address.
Here in the North West we have included the APEX of Priorities in our programmes and committed to, amongst others, ensuring social transformation by:
* accelerating delivery to the poor, and poverty eradication
* acceleration of economic growth and development
* building infrastructure that will support economy growth
* improving the effectiveness of interventions directed at the second economy
* build critical and scarce skills
* building the capacity of the state
* build a state that is safe and secure for all its inhabitants.

Salga can indeed play a significant role in ensuring that we galvanize the momentum and pace of service delivery, by creating an urgency and restlessness at local level about delivery, especially in embodying the APEX of Priorities at local level. Service delivery strikes have become rampant as we have seen over the last six months. We have seen the dissatisfaction of our people in how they have often violently displayed their dissatisfaction with the slow pace or even perceived slow pace of service delivery.

Salga's role in this regard should certainly move to include devising mechanisms and strategies to deal more effectively with these kinds of challenges alongside government. Leadership in this regard, is pertinent as these service delivery strikes have the ability to threaten the legitimacy and hard work that has been put into improving the capacity of municipalities to deliver services.

We need to ensure that this platform indeed becomes a space for open debate on all the issues that will take cognizance of the entire picture of delivery, which is not only a matter for municipalities alone. It is a matter that concerns all stake holders including nation, state and this very important institution that must continue to help the local sphere to reach government’s objectives.

The process of development at the local sphere of governance, as much as it is progressive, it must also make way for our traditional forms of governance to be integrated into governance processes, so as to improve service delivery at local level.

In this regard, the role of Dikgosi, is particularly of paramount importance in our advance towards improving lives of our people. We are aware that the department of Provincial and Local government already supports the National House of Traditional Leadership to improve governance, performance and accountability, just as we do here in the North West.

We both at national and provincial levels implemented a capacity building programme for our dikgosi to promote and enhance the involvement of the structures within the development processes of their communities. But we must continually emphasise the very important role that can be played by Dikgosi and indeed, strengthen their capacity in helping to make our communities work better in terms of improving access to services at local government level.

In the North West province we have made considerable progress in strengthening the institution of dikgosi. The following are the major achievements thus far:
* The two Local Houses of Dikgosi in Bojanala Platinum and Ngaka Modiri Molema are up and running. These are the only two districts that qualify for Local Houses. We must enhance the debate for the other two districts to qualify and enjoy the institutional benefits that are currently being enjoyed by the above mentioned districts.
* We have also made funds available for payments of sitting allowances for traditional councillors.
* Dikgosi are participating in all municipal councils where we have traditional leaders.

These improvements mean that we are able to bring the wisdom of Dikgosi into our system of governance. This also ensures that they help us to improve our relations with our people on the ground, in making communities more accessible and ensuring that we understand how to deal with our people in a manner that is more familiar to them.

In this regard, the role that can be played by Dikgosi in our developmental state should be used to make local government work better for our people. Let me close with the quote from Prof Guldenhuys's writings on financial and public management when he said:

"The more I grow, the more I learn, the more I learn, the more I know and the more I know, the more I realise how little I knew." We look forward to interacting with the resolutions of this National Members Assembly which we shall incorporate as part of our work.

In conclusion, I hope that your final day of this conference tomorrow will indeed yield the desired results for you. Salga is a pertinent component in the process of improving service delivery and I believe that through your work, municipalities will continue to grow from strength to strength.

I now want to draw your attention to another area of focus, which might not be entirely related to our topic of discussion for this National Members Assembly. Our tourism sector is currently expanding and we are expecting the number of tourists to increase dramatically over the coming years.

Both the international and domestic markets promise excellent growth for the North West province tourism industry. Consumer spending on tourism is expected to rise, as the number of both domestic and international tourist's increases. Building on existing structures and attractions, North West province has a comparative advantage in the tourism sector that few other provinces can match.

A Heritage Route and Heritage Park are being planned to develop a conservation corridor to link two of the primary tourist destinations, Pilansberg National Park and Madikwe Games Reserve. Also, the planned North West Craft and Design Institute will define and establish the craft sector in the province as a viable industry. It will aim to build a sustainable sector by targeting disadvantage communities, rural areas, youth, women and the disabled.

Building on existing structures and attractions, North West province has a comparative advantage in the tourism sector that few other provinces can match which includes:
* infrastructure development
* lodges, resorts, health spas
* private game farms
* arts and craft centres
* visitor centres

Among the most promising tourism marketing opportunities are:
* The Taung World Heritage Site - housing the Taung skull and Buxton skull sites.
* Blue Pools - a picturesque valley with caves, streams and rock pools, and popular hiking and picnic sites
* Buxton Caves - of great beauty and comparable with the famous Cango Caves
* Dinkwaneng - San Bushmen engravings, 20 kilometres from Taung
* Taung Dam - another picturesque site, 17 kilometres out of Taung on the Kolong River
* Makau Heritage Reserve
* Maikgantsho Living History Village
* The Platinum Visitor Centre project

The buoyancy of the North West Tourism industry cannot be doubted and I therefore want to encourage you all to come back to the province again to explore the beauty and excitement of a province in its booming tourism stages.

Thank you.

Issued by: Office of the Premier, North West Provincial Government
19 March 2008