Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Thembi Nkadimeng has highlighted the importance of enhancing state capacity and capabilities to accelerate basic service provision, infrastructure development, and maintenance.
The minister emphasized the need to leverage Africa’s youth dividend to drive a progressive socio-economic agenda that leaves no one behind.
She discussed the District Development Model (DDM) as a citizen-centered instrument to address challenges facing communities.
The minister also expressed condolences to the community of Hammanskraal, emphasizing the importance of building resilient municipalities with durable infrastructure.
Efforts to build capacity and stabilize coalitions
Minister Nkadimeng emphasized the importance of building capacity at the local government level to address challenges in infrastructure management.
Initiatives such as training programs for municipal officials and the deployment of built environment professionals were mentioned as strategies to improve water and wastewater infrastructure.
The minister also discussed the stabilization of coalitions in local government and the need for legislative review to adapt to new political realities.
Institutionalizing the Intergovernmental Relations (IGR) Framework, maintaining adopted Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) as guiding tools, and introducing the 1% Threshold Representation in Council were mentioned as part of this process.
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Fiscal reforms and the district development model
The minister highlighted the implementation of fiscal reforms to scale up financing for infrastructure development through conditional grants allocations.
The Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) was discussed as a means to provide capital finance for infrastructure-related projects, ensuring basic service delivery to poor households.
The Integrated Urban Development Grant (IUDG) was also mentioned as a way to fund public investment in infrastructure for the poor and increase access to municipal own sources of capital finance.
The minister emphasized the importance of the District Development Model (DDM) as an operating model for energizing cooperative governance and promoting oversight and accountability across all spheres of government.
