Cape Town, 7 June 2011 - Members  of Parliament's National Council of Provinces (NCOP) will tomorrow debate the budget Vote presented by the Acting Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nathi Mthethwa, for the 2011-2012 financial year in  Parliament last Tuesday.
The sitting will be in the Old Assembly and is  intended to give members of parliament an opportunity to interact, debate and  understand the key priorities that will drive the department in terms of programmes,  spending and other resources in the current financial period.
Key focus areas for the new term of municipal  councils, the Local Government Turn Around Strategy (LGTAS), the Delivery  Agreement on Outcome 9, service delivery imperatives, job creation and the  integration of Councillor programmes with traditional leaders' programmes came into sharp focus in Minister Mthethwa's presentation last week.
This was followed after tthree days, on Friday  June 3, by the official opening of the National House of Traditional Leaders (NHTL), which also falls under CoGTA, by the President of the Republic, the  Honourable JG Zuma who also put even more emphasis on issues of Local Government within the ambit  of traditional affairs, rural development and government's Programme of Action  at a broad level.
The  NCOP is a house of Parliament which specifically provides provinces with a  forum in which to engage with national government on matters concerning areas  of shared national and provincial legislative powers, but also oversees the programmes and activities of national government relating to provincial and  local government matters.
The  House can be regarded as a concrete expression of "cooperative governance",  hereby governance in South Africa is seen as a partnership among the national,  provincial and local spheres of government. It further means that national legislation must be sensitive to provincial interests and concerns. In addition,  provinces must not act alone or in isolation, but must be integrated into the national legislative processes.
Organised  local government is also represented in the NCOP through the South African Local Government Association (Salga), with a representation of 10 members who  may participate in the debates and other activities of the NCOP, but may not  vote.
The department is expected to convince members  of the NCOP  about how it is planning to  move closer to achieving the vision of: "An integrated, responsive,  accountable and highly effective governance system working with communities to achieve sustainable development and improved service delivery", Acting  Minister Mthethwa said.
Issued  by the Ministry for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA).