Political infighting should not be allowed to affect municipal service delivery, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said on Wednesday.
”Political parties and other organisations who took part in the 2006 local government elections must also take stock of their contribution since the elections,” he told MPs in the National Assembly.
They should ask themselves whether intra-party dynamics, as they manifested themselves immediately before and after the 2006 elections, were not beginning to infect the environment within which public representatives, especially at local level, had to do their work.
”Surely it is wrong for people who failed to secure nominations as candidates for their parties not to direct their energies towards helping today’s incumbents to serve the people as expected.
”If such unsuccessful candidates cannot find it in themselves to be helpful to others, and therefore to the people whose cause they purport to cherish, they must at least desist from actively putting obstacles in the way of the government and the people,” he said.
Speaking in debate on his budget vote, Mufamadi said the task of removing service delivery backlogs was far from complete, but the introduction of Project Consolidate was proving to have been a decisive moment in that it had generated tangible results.
”Indeed, the number of people with access to basic services continues to edge upwards.
”Rapid progress in the various key performance areas is a striking hallmark of the period following the introduction of the project,” he said.
Among other things, revenue collection in the 12 municipalities identified as pilot sites for efforts to improve municipal billing systems had increased on average by 21,4%, with increases ranging from 5% to 60%.
The total increase in revenue amounted to R1,6-billion over twelve months.
This had allowed the participating municipalities to provide new services, particularly to communities that did not have access to such services.
It was also improving the reliability of existing services, thereby improving public confidence and the attitude toward payment for municipal services.
”More importantly, it is helping improve the ability of municipalities to predict revenue flows.”
The department had also taken steps to provide technical capacity to support infrastructure development.
As at November 30 2006, a total of 42 Project Consolidate municipalities were being supported through this initiative, with 45 ”deployees” already in the field.
”We aim to reach as many as 70 municipalities with 90 deployees by the end of this month,” he said.
Development and infrastructure implementation support was being given to R2,2-billion worth of projects -‒ focusing on water, sanitation and roads.
”Project Consolidate has so far delivered good progress. More of it is required.
”The progress which we have just pointed to confirms that today’s scale and pace of service delivery is unprecedented.
”However, this progress has so far been realised in a limited number or municipal areas.
”Communities which have so far not benefited from this must ask themselves whether they have done what they have to do to help create an environment of collective responsibility for what needs to happen in their localities,” Mufamadi said. — Sapa