President Cyril Ramaphosa in the 2019 Presidency Budget Speech identified the “pattern of operating in silos" as a challenge which led to “lack of coherence in planning and implementation and has made monitoring and oversight of government's programme difficult". The consequence has been non-optimal delivery of services and diminished impact on the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and employment.
The President further called for the rolling out of “a new integrated district based approach to addressing our service delivery challenges [and] localise[d] procurement and job creation, that promotes and supports local businesses, and that involves communities."
The new District Development Model (DDM) aims to improve the coherence and impact of government service delivery with focus on 44 Districts and 8 Metros around the country as development spaces that can be used as centres of service delivery and economic development, including job creation.
On Thursday 22 August 2024, the District Development Model (DDM) Provincial Roadshow for the Northern Cape took place at the Office of the Premier in Kimberley and brought together all three spheres of government and other social partners.
The working session was to source inputs from the invited participants on the draft updated DDM Implementation Framework and Guidelines as Gazetted on 10 May 2024.
The DDM enables synergy between national, provincial, and local priorities; and implementation of immediate priority projects and actions as well as a long-term strategic framework for predictable, coherent, and effective service delivery and development.
Addressing the working session, the Head of the Department of COGHSTA, Mr Bafedile Lenkoe, said that the government should be seen to be working together irrespective of the sphere with better collaboration through the ‘’One District, One Plan, One Budget’’ approach.
Lenkoe said ‘’We can pull our limited resources together for greater impact on our communities instead of competing against each other as if we are not a unitary state with the same purpose of providing better and quality services to the citizens of this country’’.
The Municipal Managers of the Districts in the Northern Cape presented the ‘’One Plans’’ with a focus on catalytic projects that are part of the ‘’One Plans’’. The Department of COGHSTA will work with all Districts to ensure that all the Plans are inclusive of all the developments in the ‘’District Spaces’’.