South Africa and Lesotho have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on decentralisation and local government cooperation.
Dr. Minister Dlamini Zuma, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), and her counterpart, Moshe Leoma, signed the MOU in Pretoria on Wednesday.
The MoU will expand cooperation in the areas of:
- fiscal decentralisation,
- integrated development planning,
- development of local government and governance institutions and structures,
- human resource development, and
- exchange programmes by councils/municipalities.
Minister Dlamini Zuma said at the event that the two countries were entering into the agreement in the hopes of consolidating efforts to promote non-sexist and inclusive society.
“Building such societies in our nations will go a long way in realising the objectives we set for ourselves in agenda 2063 for the Africa we want.”
She said: “The decentralisation agreement will also contribute to ensuring an integrated prosperous and peaceful Africa driven by its own citizens. The decentralisation agreement will also add a fresh impetus to the other areas of cooperation our governments have entered into.”
She said that these encompass a vast array of fields, including trade and investment, security and energy, transportation, agriculture, tourism, water, and the environment.
“The signing of the MOU is welcome, particularly as we last year ratified the African Charter on the values and principles of decentralisation of local governments and local development. The charter will also be able to contribute to the gearing of all spheres government and society towards decentralisation, localised financing and spatial referencing,” she said.
Minister said that the South African government was adopting the District Development Model, which aims to integrate the budgets and programmes of all levels of government.
This will ultimately ensure that citizens experience development where they live. “Thus, this will ensure that outward migration is a result of choice and not as a result of desperation.”
In order to achieve this, she said that the two governments must do all in their ability to solve the difficulties facing the local area of governance, of which the institutions of traditional leadership are a vital component.
“Our cooperation will enhance these institutions whilst we are facilitating a more inclusive, accountable and transparent form of governance. These key agreements will also assist in addressing key challenges faced by our municipalities. These include the lack of technical skills such as those directed at planning and financing,” she said.
The two ministers also observed the signing of a technical memorandum of understanding on disaster management. This Memorandum of Understanding establishes the basis for a collaborative arrangement that includes coordinated activities to avoid and mitigate disaster-related risks. It was signed by the acting head of South Africa’s National Disaster Management Centre and the head of Lesotho’s Disaster Management Authority.
The MoU includes a framework for collaboration between the two parties. These include collaborative efforts to avoid and mitigate disaster-related hazards.
“This agreement could not have come at a better time since we’ve had to endure disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, droughts and floods which have negatively impacted on both nations. This agreement will therefore contribute to the construction of our economies whilst we are trying to build back better.
“So we welcome the signing of the MoU on disaster as it will enable both countries to cooperate in carrying out their respective responsibilities in disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery operations in the event of natural, man-made or technical disasters,” she said.
It is also anticipated that the MOU would improve research and capacity development activities.
Working together, the two nations should be able to boost the efficacy and effect of their individual and combined operations in disaster mitigation and management.
“As South Africa, we are busy with the 21 year review of local government and we hope that we will be able to establish what has worked well… and what hasn’t so that we can strengthen those areas that have worked well and maybe change those that have not.
Leoma said that the signing of the agreements was long overdue.
He said that these were consistent with the goals of the Joint Bilateral Commission for Cooperation (JBCC) between the two nations.
He said: “Similarly, we have long-standing relations with the Republic in the area of disaster risk reduction and the emergency preparedness response.
The JBCC seeks to strengthen the two nations’ strategic partnership and to co-foster good governance, which, he said, was the basis for stability and economic growth.
“The Ministry of local government and Chieftainship engaged with CoGTA since then and agreed to formalise the relations through an MoU, not only focusing on issues pertaining to local government structures, but even extend into model for a physical decentralisation framework,” he said.
In disaster management, the same was being investigated.
“While signing of this MoU marks the beginning of formal collaboration between us, a lot has been achieved. It can be seen already in the existing joined bilateral committee or search and rescue by the two countries. However, more is still to be achieved,” he said.