As natioal government, we have noted the interventions that had to be made, in terms of Section 139 of the Constitution, in such municipal areas as Butterworth, Warrenton, Wedela, Ogies, Sunnieshof and Nouwpoort. Based on the reports on the NCOP, it appears that the affected towns are not economically viable. One of the challenges we all face is to put the necessary mechanisms in place so that the capacity, administrative and management skills, of both the officials and public representatives in these areas, is raised to the required level to enable the municipalities to facilitate service delivery and promote the development of the local people. The Municipal Systems Bill that will be tabled in this House soon, provides the tools for capacity building for effective administration at the local government level. All of us, in this House and at different levels of goverment as well as in communities, should monitor closely the course that this development takes and participate actively to influece it so that, in the end, the necessary instruments are provided for better service delivery to our people.
Government needs to establish early warning systems.
These would enable all of us to monitor the performance of municipalities and remain alive to any problems and potential disruptions to development and service delivery, so as to forestall the collapses that have occurred as in the municipalities to which we referred. It is in this context that the Ministry of Provincial and Local Government has been charged with the responsibility of accelerated development, the strengthening of the institutions of governance and enhancing the quality of service delivery. It is the responsibility of the entire government to ensure that we also ensure that the provincial government sphere also has the necessary capacity to fulfill its assigned functions, which must include the building of a developmental local government system and integrating the institutions of traditional leadership into the overall system of governance so that our people, in every corner of our country, are not spectators of transformation but are themselves masters of the process. Our starting point should be that we create a decentralised and integrated delivery system in such a way that we prevent the problems that necessitate Section 139 interventions from time to time. Of course, an integrated development planning system at both provincial and municipal level will be critical to improve integrated governance and service delivery.