The three levels of government should work together to ensure better coordination in the formulation and implementation of policies, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.
Speaking in Empangeni in KwaZulu-Natal at a sitting of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP), Mbeki said it is important for the three spheres of government to work together in an integrated way.
”This past Wednesday, on the 3rd of November, Cabinet approved the Inter-Governmental Relations Framework Bill whose objective is, among others, to make all spheres of government to work together,” Mbeki said.
”This is very important because the three spheres of government … have to work together in an integrated way.
”This Bill is important because we know that in the past there were instances when the different spheres of government were not sufficiently coordinating their programmes.”
He said the NCOP has a duty to ensure that the different levels of government collaborate ”as they should” so that reconstruction and development happens faster.
At a recent presidential imbizo in Mpumalanga, many people complained about a lack of clean water, electricity, housing, roads and poor service from councillors.
Mbeki said although much has been accomplished in the past 10 years, many challenges remain.
”Part of these challenges is that many of our municipalities, which are central to the implementation of government policies, still do not have the necessary capacity, even where resources are available, to implement government programmes and ensure that there is sustainable delivery of basic services.”
The president said strong, effective municipalities are necessary to deliver basic services.
”As we know, there are serious delivery backlogs which have denied millions of our people the possibility of a better life.
”We are aware of municipalities with large communities that have no access to clean water, sanitation and electricity.”
To ensure change in these municipalities, partnerships with all sectors of society have to be formed.
Mbeki said a support project for local government structures was launched this week under the leadership of Minister of Provincial and Local Government Sydney Mufamadi.
At provincial level, project-management units and more support structures will be established to ”ensure that provinces collaborate with municipalities to bring about better capacity and improved levels of service delivery”.
Mbeki called on the NCOP to join this ”people’s contract” and to help in whatever way necessary to ”add capacity to local government structures”.
”This is important because these interventions are part of government’s broader programme of creating work and fighting poverty.
”It is a critical part of our reconstruction and development programme, through which we seek to achieve a people’s centred development.” — Sapa