COGTA ANNUAL REPORT 2020

3. Foreword by the MEC

Lebogang Maile Member of the Executive Council

Local government is the high point of government necessity within a developmental state such as ours, because if governance at a local government level is done well it positively transforms lives, and if not, society collapses. Therefore most, if not all, the service delivery challenges and protests we are faced with stem from failures at a local government level. It is for this reason that local government should be the high point of government competence, performance, and accuracy as we strive to positively transform the lives of individuals and communities within our city region. This is why the district development model, with its integrated approach to service delivery, becomes critical as we pursue sustainable ways of bringing about social, economic, and material improvement in the lives of communities. We are forging broad-based coalitions and social compacts in our quest to enhance and accelerate service delivery. Our posture as a provincial government is not to over-reach or seek to run municipalities, but rather in line with our constitutional responsibilities to strengthen our Section 154 support towards our municipalities so that they in turn can fulfil their Section 152 obligations. It is only when this systematic, methodical, and structured support has failed that we will be invoking our powers in terms of Section 139. Hence our intervention in Tshwane where there was a clear collapse of governance leading to service delivery failures and backlogs. The administrative team that we put in place is hard at work trying to turn that municipality around within the prescribed 90-day period in line with its terms of reference. Consistent with this approach of strengthening our

G A U T E N G P R O V I N C I A L G O V E R N M E N T I C O- O P E R A T I V E G O V E R N A N C E A N D T R A D I T I O N A L A F F A I R S ANNUAL REPORT 2019/20 6