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The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, addressed the media about the closure regulations.
- Cogta Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says the successes and failures of the government’s district development model cannot be determined yet.
- The cabinet approved the district development model in August 2019 and it was piloted in three municipalities.
- Dlamini-Zuma was responding to a parliamentary question from the district attorney.
The Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, says it is still premature to identify the successes and failures of the government’s district development model, a restructuring plan for the country’s struggling municipalities.
The district development model was approved by the cabinet in August 2019 and it was piloted in the Eastern Cape OR Tambo District Municipality, eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality and Waterberg District Municipality.
Dlamini-Zuma said the plan establishment phase included the development of profiles for the three pilots, requesting government and parastatal projects, programs and expenditures in the three pilot municipalities.
She was responding to a parliamentary question from DA MP Cilliers Brink who wanted details on the district plan.
Dlamini-Zuma said other goals include soliciting investment from the private sector when possible, intergovernmental engagement, and organizing business and community engagements.
Conducting a skills gap analysis and institutional capacity also topped the list, Dlamini-Zuma said.
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Brink said the prosecution believes it would be much premature to implement another major ministerial plan to fix local government without any evidence that it will work.
“In August, the district attorney cornered the minister in a Cogta portfolio committee, and she said she would give the portfolio committee the information that supports the decision to adopt the district model beyond its pilot phase. Now it seems that this information does not exist and that the district model was going to be implemented independently of the information that comes from the pilot sites, ”she said.
In July, the Prosecutor’s Office announced that a government official leaked a “top-secret” draft document from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, which proposed centralized control of municipalities through a structure similar to the National Coronavirus Command Council.
Brink compared the district development model to a coup.
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The 46-page document supposedly bears a department logo, is marked “top secret” and “draft 5” and is titled “South Africa’s Economic Recovery Plan for Municipalities in Response to Covid-19.” No indication is given as to who its author is.
The document addresses the dire economic situation of the country, in particular how it relates to municipalities and proposes the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic as an opportune moment for a restructuring of the government and the economy.
But President Cyril Ramaphosa defended the government plan as a means to improve service delivery.
Brink said that while the plan is being implemented, the government has been silent on urgent problems in local government, including the electricity crisis in municipalities that are defaulting on their Eskom debt.
“A bill aimed at improving the intervention of the provincial and national government in dysfunctional municipalities has also been languishing in the minister’s department,” he said.
