The Premier of the Northern Cape, Ms Sylvia Lucas, and the Provincial Cabinet completed a successful three-day Cabinet outreach to the Namakwa and Pixley ka Seme Districts recently.
The Cabinet outreach programme is aimed at strengthening intergovernmental relations and to improve the capacity of Government in implementing integrated service delivery programmes. This programme also places the Provincial Government in a position to assess service delivery to this area as well as focus on service delivery challenges facing the communities in these regions.
Members of the Provincial Executive were accompanied by councilors and officials from municipalities falling under the Namakwa and Pixley District Municipalities which has an oversight and support role to play to municipalities that fall under its jurisdiction, as well as CDWs and officials from all spheres of government.
The Cabinet Outreach was three-fold in nature; firstly Ms Lucas and the MEC for Co-operative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs (COGHSTA), Mr. Alvin Botes, conducted District Intergovernmental Relations Forums to meet with all Councilors, Municipal Managers and CFOs of the two respective districts in order to look at the audit outcomes of these municipalities and ways of improving these audit outcomes towards Operation Clean Audit 2014.
According to Ms Lucas, “ It is crucial that all representatives of municipalities attend these IGR structures because these are crucial monitoring and evaluation structures since we are all accountable to the laws of this country and everyone has a responsibility to improve the lives of the poor people”. She went further to state that, “Local Government is the coalface of government and where the needs of people should be addressed thus we must find a way to work together politically and administratively”.
Secondly; community members in Calvinia, Loeriesfontein, Brandvlei, Nieuwoudtville, Fraserburg, Williston, Carnarvon and van Wyksvlei were given an opportunity to interact directly with Members of the Executive Council on service delivery challenges and to seek direct intervention from some of the Provincial Government departments. These door to door visits prove very effective because they offer the sick and elderly an opportunity to liaise directly with government representatives which they often cannot do.
A third aspect of the visit was the Community meetings as part of the National Imbizo Focus week programme that ran from the 11-15 June 2013. These meetings were held in Calvinia, Nieuwoudtville, Fraserburg and Carnarvon. At these meetings members of the community were allowed to openly participate in the programme and to air their grievances. With these open engagements cabinet gets first hand information on the challenges faced by communities and a firm commitment was made that the respective MEC’s will return to the communities with tangible solutions to their concerns.
Throughout the visit the Ms Lucas stressed the need for Government to work speedier to address the challenges faced by the community. Such was the case with two female-headed households in Fraserburg in the Karoo Hoogland Municipality who were found living in the veld in makeshift stone houses. This posing a threat to both their and their children’s health and safety. Ms Lucas immediately made arrangements for them to be moved to an unoccupied Government building whilst the Department of Cooperative Governance and Human Settlements registers them as beneficiaries and arranges for proper houses to be built for them at an already identified housing development in the town.
Eighty year old Mr. Willem Links who is blind and living in a house built during the previous regime of government will as part of the Premiers’ Mandela Day activities receive a brand new house. The current house is built on a wet area and the house is always wet and moist contributing to the current health problems of Mr. Links. The Premier will personally be present when the foundation to the house will be laid on 18 July 2013.
Health, Education, Housing and Safety and Security are other areas where firm commitments were made and the Premier will ensure that there is definitive delivery on all commitments made.
The Cabinet outreaches will continue to other areas and District IGRs will be conducted in the Frances Baard, John Taolo Gaetsewe and Siyanda Districts in the coming two weeks. With the past developments and future activities planned it bears testimony that the newly appointed Premier is committed to extending and building on the foundations laid by her predecessors in terms of delivering to all the people of the Northern Cape.
Released on behalf of the Provincial Cabinet
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