12 September 2007

NON-GOVERNMENTAL Organisations (NGOs) coming from different parts of the country recently kicked-off their engagement with government on the white paper review process at Emperor's Palace in Boksburg.

During this meeting, the director-general of the department of provincial and local government, Lindiwe Msengana-Ndlela, called on the NGOs to fully participate and help enrich the process with their experience and ideas, but most of all to make inputs that will help develop and review the white papers.

"When we launched Project Consolidate in 2004 we stated that there is a need to address capacity challenges and policy challenges that exit," said Msengana-Ndlela.

While consensus among NGOs was that challenges still remain with regard to development in local government, they acknowledged significant progress that has taken place in the area of public participation.

"Local government is much more participatory than it has ever been in the history of this country, but the Ward Committees require added support to be able to function better and make a notable impact" said Terrence Smith, representing the Local Government Resource Centre in Contemporary Research.

"Although violence must be condemned, but the protests that we see currently must be seen as part of public participation," added Smith.

NGOs are calling on government to identify tools and techniques to ensure effective participation as part of the white paper process.

"This to us says that that government admits that they do not have answers to all issues and need all of us to work together in developing systems that will work for the development of our communities," said Girlie Njoni from South African Women in Dialogue.

The white paper process intends to respond to some of these challenges that were identified. It will culminate into the formulation of a white paper for provincial government and a report that will inform the review of the existing white paper on local government.

The meeting with NGOs is important as stakeholders continue to make inputs in the process of developing and reviewing policy for these two spheres. It follows the launch of the white paper process by the minister for provincial and local government, Sydney Mufamadi, on 31 July 2007.

At the launch, a list of 65 questions was published with the aim to trigger a robust public debate on the systems. These questions cover five main categories but are not exhaustive. They focus on: Local Government; Provincial Government; National Government; Development Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation.

Source: dplg.gov.za