JOHANNESBURG - The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) said government's launch of a White Paper is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to rebuild and reinvent local government, further calling it a reset.
SALGA joined hands with the Dullar Omar Institute to submit proposals to shape this reviewed draft White Paper.
Reacting to the White Paper launch, SALGA CEO Sithole Mbanga said the review came after more than two decades of democratic local government during which the country has made progress, but also identified weaknesses disabling local government to achieve its objectives.
“In that period, we have learned that there are certain good things that have happened, but we've also realised that there are certain things that are disabling local government to achieve its objectives. So it is an opportunity for us to look at a new way of transforming local government,” he said.
The same sentiments were echoed by Local Government expert Miyelani Holeni, who said previous attempts to fix struggling municipalities had often relied on individual turnaround strategies rather than addressing weaknesses across the entire system
“Now, we can come back into legislation holistically and become one document that smooths out all of the different things. It's not just a turnaround strategy of a few municipalities, but it's now turning around the entire system with all the best lessons and learnings and data that we have.”