Local government gets back to basics on service delivery
SAnews.gov.za
At a media briefing for the Inter-Ministerial Committee on Information and
Publicity,
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Pravin Gordhan said local
government needs to go “back to basics” to improve on service delivery to South
Africans.
Gordhan said this would top the agenda when government convenes a summit on
local government on Thursday, 18 September, at Gallagher Estate Conference Centre
in
Midrand. President Jacob Zuma will lead the summit.
At the briefing, Gordhan said he had “conducted a rapid assessment of the state of
local
government”.
He said the assessment covered political stability, governance, service delivery,
financial management, institutional management and community satisfaction, adding
that the department has initiated a process to set benchmarks for municipalities to
perform their basic responsibilities, “every day, without fail”.
Gordhan said the benchmarks had led to developing the Back to
Basics Strategy,
which is in line with the president’s vision for local government to be at “the forefront
of
improving people’s lives and creating conditions for inclusive economic growth and job
creation”.
“Back to Basics will ensure that in every municipality, traffic lights work, potholes
are filled, water is delivered, refuse is collected, electricity is supplied, and refuse and
waste management takes place,” he said.
Local government minister Pravin Gordhan is shaking up service delivery to improve South Africans' access to clean water, proper sanitation, electricity and safer roads, among others. (Image: International Monetary Fund)