The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) met with multidisciplinary stakeholders from Provincial SALGA, National and Provincial CoGTA and Provincial Treasury at a consultative meeting which was held in Rustenburg Civic Centre in the North-West Province on 01 October 2021.
This stakeholder forum was established following Cabinet’s endorsement of the State of Local Government (SOLG) report in order to develop a support and intervention plan to address challenges identified in that report. The SOLG report is a comprehensive diagnostic report on the state of all 257 municipalities across the country. Key pillars of local government, namely political, governance, administrative, financial management and service delivery were applied in order to categorise municipalities as stable, medium risk, low risk or dysfunctional.
According to the SOLG report, out of the 257 municipalities in the country, 92 of them have been classified as dysfunctional. Cabinet resolved that the North West Province would be piloted for the development of a support and intervention plan as it has, according to the SOLG report, the worst performing municipalities and is as such, in dire need of urgent support. Ten out of the twenty-two municipalities have been classified as dysfunctional on all local government pillars.
In light of this, a North West multidisciplinary stakeholder forum which consists of the following five workstreams, political, service delivery, financial management, governance & administration and stakeholder management was established in June 2021 to develop support and interventions plans for the identified municipalities as per their categories on the SOLG and to align these plans to those of municipalities e.g Integrated Development Plan (IDP)
During the meeting, different workstreams gave feedback on the work done so far which included solutions for the challenges identified in the SOLG report. An array of challenges identified ranged from municipalities who default on financial obligations and to no surprise the issue of Eskom’s municipal debt.
MISA, represented by the two DDGs: Ms. Pati Kgomo and Mr. Allan Zimbwa, highligted that there needs to be an approach that will help municipalities to resource the plans within the available budget while influencing the municipalities to make an allocation for service delivery since it is the core of their existence.
Mr Ramagaga from Provincial CoGTA reported that the Provincial Treasury has committed a budget of R28m towards procurement of yellow fleet which will be in the custody of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure. The Provincial COGTA also committed to procuring 4 borehole drilling equipment which will be distributed across all 4 districts while the Department of Public works committed to providing material to fix potholes as well as procurement of diesel for yellow fleet.
Further discussions revealed that there needs to be more leveraging on services other stakeholders like the Development Bank of Southern Africa for resources.
The meeting agreed that there needs to be a swift move in filling of positions in municipalities post the local government elections as this has been identified as one of the major contributors that leads to dysfunctionality in municipalities.
The intervention will align with financial recovery plans for particularly troubled municipalities which was announced by the Finance MEC in June 2021.
8 October 2021
The Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) met with multidisciplinary stakeholders from Provincial SALGA, National and Provincial CoGTA and Provincial Treasury at a consultative meeting which was held in Rustenburg Civic Centre in the North-West Province on 01 October 2021.
This stakeholder forum was established following Cabinet’s endorsement of the State of Local Government (SOLG) report in order to develop a support and intervention plan to address challenges identified in that report. The SOLG report is a comprehensive diagnostic report on the state of all 257 municipalities across the country. Key pillars of local government, namely political, governance, administrative, financial management and service delivery were applied in order to categorise municipalities as stable, medium risk, low risk or dysfunctional.
According to the SOLG report, out of the 257 municipalities in the country, 92 of them have been classified as dysfunctional. Cabinet resolved that the North West Province would be piloted for the development of a support and intervention plan as it has, according to the SOLG report, the worst performing municipalities and is as such, in dire need of urgent support. Ten out of the twenty-two municipalities have been classified as dysfunctional on all local government pillars.
In light of this, a North West multidisciplinary stakeholder forum which consists of the following five workstreams, political, service delivery, financial management, governance & administration and stakeholder management was established in June 2021 to develop support and interventions plans for the identified municipalities as per their categories on the SOLG and to align these plans to those of municipalities e.g Integrated Development Plan (IDP)
During the meeting, different workstreams gave feedback on the work done so far which included solutions for the challenges identified in the SOLG report. An array of challenges identified ranged from municipalities who default on financial obligations and to no surprise the issue of Eskom’s municipal debt.
MISA, represented by the two DDGs: Ms. Pati Kgomo and Mr. Allan Zimbwa, highligted that there needs to be an approach that will help municipalities to resource the plans within the available budget while influencing the municipalities to make an allocation for service delivery since it is the core of their existence.
Mr Ramagaga from Provincial CoGTA reported that the Provincial Treasury has committed a budget of R28m towards procurement of yellow fleet which will be in the custody of the Department of Public Works and Infrastructure. The Provincial COGTA also committed to procuring 4 borehole drilling equipment which will be distributed across all 4 districts while the Department of Public works committed to providing material to fix potholes as well as procurement of diesel for yellow fleet.
Further discussions revealed that there needs to be more leveraging on services other stakeholders like the Development Bank of Southern Africa for resources.
The meeting agreed that there needs to be a swift move in filling of positions in municipalities post the local government elections as this has been identified as one of the major contributors that leads to dysfunctionality in municipalities.
The intervention will align with financial recovery plans for particularly troubled municipalities which was announced by the Finance MEC in June 2021.