By Steven Ntuli

The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has signed an agreement with Ehlanzeni District Municipality in Mpumalanga aimed at building the capacity of councillors in the area.

Ehlanzeni comprises four municipalities - Mbombela, Nkomazi, Umjindi and Thaba Chweu.

The partnership programme will see direct financial assistance, about R4 million from the USAID, flowing into Ehlanzeni, which amongst others, will be used to develop and implement an efficient ward system.

The programme will include training of councilors over a period of two years in areas such as public participation in integrated development planning, servicing wards.

Signing the agreement, the EDM Executive Mayor of Ehlanzeni District Municipality Jeri Ngomane said the funding came at the right time as councillors were being criticised on the pace of delivery.

'Nobody is born a councilor, and nobody is born with skills to deliver, persuade and talk to people about budget and other constraints,' said Mr Ngomane.

Mr Ngomane said public criticism was a challenge to be taken seriously by all councilors in order to empower themselves on issues of development and improve the pace and quality of service delivery.

'You need to be visible, USAID saw the need and they granted us the funds when we applied, it is in such training you will be equipped with implementation and planning processes,' he said.

USAID has had a bilateral grant agreement with the Department of Provincial and Local Government since 1998 aimed at supporting local governance, to make it effective and promote the values of democracy.

USAID representative Larry Partel said his organisation and the department of provincial and local government agreed through a bilateral programme, the local Government Support Programme, to provide assistance to municipalities so they could perform their functions with increasing accountability, transparency and effectiveness.

'Ehlanzeni District Municipality was selected for direct assistance to develop and implement a ward planning system and capacity building programme,' said Mr Partel. - BuaNews

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