By Matome Sebelebele

SPEAKING in Parliament, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said that government will utilize all its financial resources allocated for different developmental projects in the country's 284 municipalities to further roll out basic services to the poor.

This includes eradicating all bucket systems in the next two years, spending R14 billion building low-cost houses over the next three years and providing basic sanitation and clean water during the next five years. In addition, authorities would spend R1.2 billion setting up what it calls "bulk electricity infrastructure" to bring electricity to about three million households in rural areas.

Mufamadi told parliament today that this would enable authorities to realise a "sustainable and equitable growth path" for the country. "We are able to make commitments of this kind because we have put in place a political system which articulates national goals and supports a policy-making and implementation process that in turn makes possible the realisation of these goals," he asserted.

Money would be drawn from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG), the Extended Public Works Programme and Local Economic Development Fund, amongst others. The MIG would be launched in August.

"The totality of government's development initiatives is aimed at creating jobs, fighting poverty and charting a sustainable development path," he said, adding that authorities sought to use municipalities as conduits for development and service delivery. Government has since its inception ten years ago, connected more than 70 percent of the country's total households to electricity while 85 percent of households now have access to clean water with 63 percent having proper sanitation. Authorities have also committed to unveiling a local government leadership Academy to deal with leadership crisis at municipalities.

"This Academy will be a base from which we shall systematically sponsor local government's capacity for innovations that our system of government requires," affirmed Mufamadi. Government's intention, added the minister, was to train at least 5 000 local government practitioners by March next year.

This would make the 284 municipalities "more dependable" in providing service instrumental in fueling development.

The local government sphere has been rocked with disturbing reports of financial mismanagement, maladministration and corruption that have impacted negatively on service delivery. To this end, government has put together a troubleshooting team ready to be deployed in municipalities to iron out bottlenecks including sorting out the billing system, electricity and water cut-offs. "Since this support is meant to fade out over time, provinces will immediately replicate this process in order to position themselves such that they can continue to support municipalities in their own areas of jurisdiction. "For their part, the municipalities concerned will fully embrace this as an opportunity for them to learn by doing," said Mr Mufamadi.

Source: - BuaNews