Pretoria, 14 July 2008 -The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Shiceka, will send a high level delegation of department officials to Mpumalanga province to investigate the concerns of the community and devise the turn-around strategy in response to the recent community protests in the province.

Briefing the media after the meeting with the Mpumalanga Premier David Mabuza and the provincial Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Norman Mokoena - Minister Shiceka told journalists that senior officials from the national department will be dispatched to Mpumalanga this week to work together with the province in finding solutions to people’s concerns.

“The team will be responsible for assisting the province to identify the problems, solutions and also to come up with the turn -around strategy as a short term intervention”, said Minister Shiceka.

The meeting was to brief the Minister on the recent spate of protest  by the communities in the municipalities in the province,  and to hatch a plan to resolve peoples grievances.

Minister Shiceka also emphasized that the intervention would not be limited to Mpumalanga province but there would be a turn -around strategy to assist all municipalities in the country who are falling behind in service delivery.