The Census 2022 data shows that the country may be having difficulties, but life is not the same as it was in 1994, ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member Thembi Nkadimeng says.
Nkadimeng, also the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, spoke to the media on Sunday, which marked the second day of the three-day NEC meeting held in Boksburg in Ekurhuleni.
“We moved in ensuring that even in rural areas, where there was no refuse collection… or reticulation, there have been efforts to address it,” she said.
However, she warned that census data also showed that the government was “dealing with a moving target”.
This meant that the planning of the cities needed to adjust and be different from how they were ten years ago, she added.
Nkadimeng said among the debates at the NEC was the need to “strengthen intergovernmental relations to ensure that there is one government, one plan, and one budget”.
“We have a great responsibility to develop the capacity of municipalities in order to be able to respond to the demand for services,” she said.
But beyond that, she said, there were issues of governance and administration that municipalities struggled with, including the issue of coalitions.
She said the NEC also discussed strategies to ensure municipalities responded urgently to natural disasters.
Parks Tau, Nkadimeng’s deputy in government and also an NEC member, said that the department was conducting a comprehensive assessment ofthe performance of municipalities.
The process will identify municipalities that require specific intervention, said Tau, adding that this was part of the intervention to strengthen government capacity and coordination.
He said the department also focused attention on improving municipal grant expenditure, adding that there were incidents of underperformance.
The department was driving a process of converting direct grants to indirect grants, which would ensure that the government could spend on behalf of those municipalities unable to spend so that services could be delivered.
Tau said there was also a decision to extend the Eskom debt write-off scheme to municipalities, and a similar programme was identified for water debt to bulk water service providers.
“Deficiencies with regard to service delivery failures are a result of disputes around payment to agencies supplying services,” he said.
However, he said the intervention did not discount the continuous focus on building capacity and capability in municipalities.
