We have come together as all three spheres of government, from the Presidency to every municipality in the land, because we recognize the importance of local government as the sphere that is closest to our people.

We have felt it important to confer with all 283 municipalities in the country at once, on how we can work together to make our municipalities work better.

KHAYELITSHA, CAPE TOWN,

20 OCTOBER 2009

The Deputy President of the Republic of South Africa, Honourable Kgale

ma Motlanthe,

Honourable Ministers,

Honourable Premiers,

Deputy Ministers and MECs responsible for local government,

Directors-General and Municipal Managers,

Ladies and gentlemen,

We have come together as all three spheres of government, from the Presidency to every municipality in the land, because we recognize the importance of local government as the sphere that is closest to our people.

We have felt it important to confer with all 283 municipalities in the country at once, on how we can work together to make our municipalities work better.

The functionality and effectiveness of municipalities is of critical importance.This interactive session will enable us to obtain a first hand account from Mayors, on the challenges on the ground. We want to go beyond the written reports and the information gathered during our own visits to a few municipalities.

We deemed it necessary to meet you as we have not had an opportunity to see all Mayors since the new administration came into being.

As you are aware, we moved quickly after the elections to reconfigure government to improve service delivery.

We created two Ministries in the Presidency, one responsible for the National Planning Commission and the other for effective performance Monitoring and Evaluation.

Some new departments have also been created, others were renamed to indicate a policy shift while yet others were merged or split, as part of the reconfiguration. I will discuss just a few.

We established the Human Settlements department with a mandate to go beyond housing.

It is meant to build communities that have closer access to work and social amenities, including sports and recreational facilities.

Minerals and Energy departments were made independent entities to allow more specific focus and impact on job creation and infrastructure development, as well as service delivery especially in relation to energy.

We created two Education Ministries to underline the importance of this priority. The Basic Education Ministry focuses on adult basic education and training, as well as Primary and Secondary education.

The quality of the skills and education institutions in our country will determine the success of the country’s industrial policy.

We agreed that we needed to strengthen institutions such as the Sectoral Education and Training Authorities (SETA's).

The new Higher Education Ministry therefore focuses on tertiary, technical and vocational training as well as skills development which includes the SETAs.

We established a new Ministry of Rural Development and Land Affairs, to help us change the face of rural areas through meaningful socio-economic development initiatives. The Ministry will impact on the work of many municipalities, rural and urban.

The new Economic Development Department is designed to have a strong domestic focus and to address amongst others, matters of macro and micro-economic development planning.

The Ministry together with Trade and Industry, Finance and others are working to refine their respective mandates and how they will relate to each other and we intend to finalise the process in the next few weeks.

Colleagues, this is a crucial interface, as the meeting takes us a step further in the process refining how government works.

We have seen various sectors and groups in our society but this is very important because we are meeting a critical sphere of government.

The municipalities are the first door that our people knock on when they need assistance from government. When people are frustrated with the slow movement of the wheel of government they engage municipalities before other spheres.

Citizens also blame municipalities for functions that they have no direct control over. For example, municipalities are blamed for dysfunctional schools, poor service at hospitals and the slow pace of building houses.

These are of course responsibilities of other spheres of government. But for our people, local government is the first door of government they know, and sometimes the only door that they can reach.

As our nation has witnessed recently, the knocking on municipal doors by citizens is not always pleasant. Sometimes it destroys the very public resources and institutions that are critical for solving the problems that they complain about.

Some of the protests have tended to become violent, criminal and destructive.

They have at times been directed at our brothers and sisters from other countries in the African continent.

Colleagues, I wish to take this opportunity to state without any ambiguity: this government will NOT tolerate the destruction of property, the violence and the intimidation that often accompanies protests.

There is no cause in a democratic and free society, however legitimate, that justifies the wanton destruction of property and violence that we have witnessed.

South Africa has a proud history of protest against wrong-doing and injustice. There is no institution or individual that our people cannot stand up to and challenge if they think an injustice has been committed.

This is who we are. This is our heritage. It is what makes South Africa the vibrant democracy it is today, and will continue to be in the future.

However, burning down libraries, torching people’s houses, and looting spaza shops do not build a strong nation. It does not solve our legitimate problems.

It is not a foundation upon which we can collectively build a bright future for our children.