State says it's made progress on improving service delivery countrywide

Home Affairs Minister, Malusi Gigaba says rapid progress is being made by government in improving service delivery for basic services in South Africa. Image: GCIS

He was briefing the media over the weekend on the implementation of government's Programme of Action for service delivery.

Gigaba said that 48,751 were connected to the national electricity grid while a further 3,786 using non-grid technologies.

"In an effort to strengthen and support the planning and delivery of services by municipalities, the Service Delivery Budget Implementation Plans (SDBIP) for metros were submitted in line with the prescribed framework and were published at the end of August," said Gigaba.

Efforts to strengthen and broaden public participation in local service delivery through ward committees were also in progress with a total of 450 Ward Level Service Improvement Plans having been developed since May. The improvement plans focus on, repairing potholes and traffic lights, preventing service interruptions, resolve billing queries and cleaning public spaces.

He says a total of 3,294 ward service improvement plans have been developed.

President Jacob Zuma established an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) on service delivery comprising the Ministers of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, The Presidency responsible for Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation, Human Settlements, Water and Sanitation, Home Affairs, Energy, Transport, Basic Education, Health, Public Enterprises and Rural Development and Land Reform, among others.

Plan to reduce delivery backlogs

Illegal electricity connections are being reduced and 48,751 homes have now been legally connected to the national electricity grid according to Malusi Gigaba. Image: Operation Khanyisa

The IMC will try to ensure a reduction in service delivery backlogs and accelerate water, sanitation, energy, roads and housing infrastructure delivery.

The Presidential Local Government Summit was convened earlier this month and was attended by 1,650 senior people from different departments.

"The outcomes of the summit instilled a sense of urgency for improving the lives of citizens and confirmed that "Back to Basics" is about setting clear benchmarks of performance in an effort to ensure that all municipalities perform their basic responsibilities, every day, without fail," said Gigaba.

Further to this, President Zuma announced the finalisation of a policy framework on how the urban system in South Africa can be reorganised so that cities and towns can become inclusive, resource efficient and good places to live in over the next 20 to 30 years.

He said the policy will also address challenges of rapid urbanisation and spatial integration.

Assistance on billing problems

Gigaba said government was committed to partnering with the City of Johannesburg to resolve matters relating to their billing system.

Government claims that progress has been made in eradicating the bucket system in various townships. Here municipal workers offload clean buckets in one of the muncipalities that still relies on this system. Image: Africa Check

He said because of an increase in the usage of actual meter readings instead of estimates, bill accuracy and revenue collection had been improved.

"There are still challenges that remain to be addressed. These include data cleansing, poor quality in capturing new customers for services, which result in delays in the change of ownership and inaccuracies in property categories," said Gigaba.

"Over the 100 days period, practical training was offered to 17 waste water process controllers and 22 artisans in Vhembe District Municipality. These apprentices will be absorbed as permanent municipal officials upon completion of the training."

A similar programme for 127 identified apprentices is being extended to the Ugu, uThungulu and Harry Gwala District Municipalities.

"Through the MISA Bucket Eradication Programme, 513 households had their bucket toilet systems replaced with the ablution facilities in Northern Cape," he said.

Through MISA technical support is being provided to municipalities in the Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga and an artisan development programme is supporting 50 unemployed graduates and 27 municipal officials. A total of 300 additional apprentices will be enrolled into the programme during the course of current financial year.

A total of 103 experiential learners and 50 water and wastewater process controllers have been deployed in municipalities to date.

Through the Community Work Programme,178,788 jobs were created for July.