South Africa: Govt to assess service delivery in provinces
Compiled by the Government Communication and Information System
Date: 09 May 2012
Title: Govt to assess service delivery in provinces
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Pretoria - Government will hold service delivery assessment sessions across the country's nine provinces to engage with traditional leaders, residents and all stakeholders.
The announcement was made by Cooperative Governance Minister Richard Baloyi during his Budget Vote speech in Parliament, on Wednesday.
"We have decided to hold service delivery assessment sessions in all the provinces called One-For-All summits, where we engage with all councillors, traditional leaders and civil society formations -- all on service delivery questions," he said.
This practice, Baloyi said, would ensure that what his departed reported on quarterly, was what the people experienced on the ground.
Baloyi singled out the Eastern Cape provincial government as being in the lead through their municipality-MEC (MuniMEC) arrangements, whereby the MEC meets frequently with all mayors and supporting bodies for the sector departments and state-owned entities.
"Our office is invited into these sessions and we utilise the space to monitor the implementation of service delivery initiatives," he said.
Baloyi said his department was also set to review pieces of legislation that were seen to be impeding the acceleration of service delivery.
"We set ourselves a target to review pieces of legislation that are said to be impeding service delivery, in terms of the local government turnaround strategy."
According to the minister, they have now identified more than 300 sections of legislations that fall under this category and they are moving ahead to propose reviews.
"Yes, there has been a delay in finalising this matter, chiefly because those who identified these laws do not go far beyond mentioning them. We have put together a team of law experts to deal with this matter ..." he said.
Baloyi envisioned this process would be completed by August this year.
The budget for the entire ministry stands at R54.715 billion, with R37.837 billion allocated for the Equitable Share, R13.881 billion for Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG), R230 million for Municipal Systems Improvement Grant (MSIG), R1.439 billion for Community Works Programme (CWP) and R196.5 million for Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA).
Reported by: South African Government News Service
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