{"id":235894,"date":"2022-09-01T13:06:54","date_gmt":"2022-09-01T11:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/functional-municipalities-speak-to-the-heart-of-socio-economic-rights\/"},"modified":"2022-09-01T13:06:54","modified_gmt":"2022-09-01T11:06:54","slug":"functional-municipalities-speak-to-the-heart-of-socio-economic-rights","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/functional-municipalities-speak-to-the-heart-of-socio-economic-rights\/","title":{"rendered":"Functional municipalities speak to the heart of socio-economic rights"},"content":{"rendered":"
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President Cyril Ramaphosa says, as one of the most important custodian of the socio-economic rights of the people, it is critical for local government to be fully functional and accountable to the people it serves.<\/p>\n

The President was speaking at the Local Governance conference hosted by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the Commission for the Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Cultural, Religious and Linguistic Communities (CRL) on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of the most progressive aspects of our Bill of Rights is that it guarantees not just political and cultural freedoms, but\u2026it also guarantees socio-economic rights. It enjoins the state to achieve the progressive realisation of rights such as healthcare, education, food and water to housing and to social security.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal government is one of the most important custodians of the socio-economic rights of the people of South Africa. Efficient and affordable service delivery could mark the difference between leading a life of dignity as promised by our Constitution and the life of squalor, misery and deprivation,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President reflected that functional local government has an impact on the quality of life of people.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen local government works, when basic services such as water, sanitation, education, electrification and healthcare are distributed and provided efficiently and equitably, people\u2019s quality of life is improved, businesses thrive, economies grow and the dignity of our people is assured,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen local government delivery fails, the impact is direct and devastating and it immediately has an overarching impact on the lives of our people where they live,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President described it as \u201cdeeply disturbing\u201d that Auditor General, National Treasury and Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs reports show that the majority of municipalities are \u201cfailing\u201d.<\/p>\n

Some two thirds of municipalities are in financial distress with only 41 receiving clean audits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat this means is that many of our municipalities are unable to deliver basic services and are unable to build and upgrade clinics, hospitals and fix roads. Political contestation and infighting, lack of skills, failure to adhere to legislative prescripts, poor governance, lack of accountability as well as\u2026super corruption are causing instability in our municipalities and are eroding the provision of services to ordinary South Africans.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a crisis. It’s a crisis of enormous proportions. Continuing along the current trajectory is neither viable nor sustainable. It undermines the Constitutional promise of human dignity, it threatens economic growth and investment, it is a threat to our Constitutional order.<\/p>\n

\u201cLocal government in our country needs a massive review. We also need to ensure that those who are deployed there recommit themselves to the values of our Constitution and those who get involved in malfeasance and corruption are rooted out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President added however, that the District Development Model currently being rolled out in municipalities across the country will bring much needed progress in overcoming these challenges.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is through the District Development Model, that we introduced in 2019, through which we aim to integrate and coordinate planning, economic development, service provision at local government level, that we can make progress in dealing with some of the inherent problems in local government.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis model is about targeted development that takes the needs of local communities into account and makes sure that there is regular engagement and public participation.<\/p>\n

\u201cDespite the significant challenges facing local government, the implementation of customised municipal support and improvement programmes by the Department of Cooperative Governance is yielding some positive outcomes. These programmes focus on putting people first, delivering services to the right quality and standard and advancing good governance and sound financial management,\u201d President Ramaphosa said. \u2013 SANews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

President Cyril Ramaphosa says, as one of the most important custodian of the socio-economic rights of the people, it is critical for local government to be fully functional and accountable to the people it serves. The President was speaking at the Local Governance conference hosted by the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) and the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":235895,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-235894","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/09\/functional-municipalities-speak-to-the-heart-of-socio-economic-rights.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235894","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=235894"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/235894\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/235895"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=235894"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=235894"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=235894"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}