The government will convene the Local Government Summit later this month in an aim to boost capacity for a moral and progressive state.
According to this, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) will focus on creating communities that are resilient, sustainable, coherent, cohesive, integrated, non-sexist, lively, and climate-smart.
The two-day Summit’s subject is “DDM in Action – Towards an Ideal Municipality” and it will take place on September 27 and 28, 2022.
It will be placed in the Boksburg, Gauteng, Birchwood Conference Centre.
The conference will include participation from top government officials from all branches of government as well as legislators, according to CoGTA spokeswoman Lungi Mtshali.
The most significant stakeholders, he said, were “key stakeholder representatives from industry, academia, traditional leaders, civil society, women, youth, and individuals with disabilities, to name just a few.”
The conference, he said, intends to enhance local governance.
“The Constitution requires the three branches of government to recognise their separate responsibilities while also acknowledging their interconnectedness and interdependence.
The summit’s goal is to promote and improve local government in accordance with section 154 of our Constitution. According to the statute, both the federal and provincial governments must assist and strengthen municipalities so they can manage their own affairs and carry out their tasks.
The flaws of cooperative governance that show up at the front lines of government, in municipalities where communities encounter government, are confirmed by our State of Local Government Report, among other things, according to Mtshali.
The summit follows the recent passage of the Municipal Systems Amendment Act 2022, which marked the beginning of a period of concrete efforts to help municipalities apply their authority for the good of communities.
“The summit will operate as a venue for coalescing best practises for replication and a chance to identify long-term solutions to problems affecting local government and, indirectly, cooperative governance.
The summit will emphasise how crucial it is to make the District Development Paradigm (DDM) an official operational model for collaborative government.
Through the DDM, all areas of government work in unison, directed by the “One Plan,” which was developed in conjunction with social partners in each district and metro area in order to create inclusive local economies and enhance the quality of life for inhabitants.
The key to the summit, he said, will be for participants to leave with a shared action plan that will allow the creation of a perfect municipality that strategically exemplifies the pursuit of a long-term growth trajectory centred on the One Plan’s transformative themes.
They “relate to governance and financial management as well as integrated service delivery to support economic positioning via infrastructure engineering and spatial reconfiguration,” he said.