NCOP holds Local Govt Week

Local Government Week, which kicked off on Monday, 5 August 2013, is aimed at providing an opportunity for national reflection on issues affecting local government, in order to improve the lives of South Africans through accelerated service delivery.

The objectives of the week are:

• To facilitate dialogue on local government issues and foster a common understanding on the challenges at hand, as well as to propose short-, medium- and long-term solutions;
  
• To showcase successes and contextualise the challenges confronting municipalities in carrying out the developmental mandate;
  
• To assess the adequacy of the support framework from national and provincial government, as envisaged by the Constitution; and
  
• To explore means of enforcing the constitutional support framework.

This initiative will serve as an important means towards fulfilling the constitutional requirement that national and provincial government must support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities.

The sessions will include reflection on progress made from the resolutions of last year's seminar from the local government perspective and the NCOP oversight work.

Other topics to be discussed include the National Development Plan, local government fiscal framework, good governance, accountability and sound financial management.

Local Government Week is being held under the theme, Developmental local government in a capable state: Celebrating achievements and exploring opportunities.

Parliamentarians, senior members of the national and provincial SALGA leadership, cabinet ministers and MECs, the auditor-general, independent analysts and strategic entities have been invited.