SOUTH AFRICA: Audit to address outstanding service delivery

Drakensburg – The KwaZulu-Natal government is expected to do an audit to address outstanding service delivery issues in the province. This decision was taken at a three-day provincial Cabinet Indaba held at Drakensburg Sun, earlier this wee
The Indaba, which was officially opened by Provincial Premier Sibusiso Ndebele on Tuesday, reviewed a variety of government programmes that are aligned to the National Apex Priorities, the National State of the Nation Address and the Provincial State of the Province Address.

The cabinet also discussed specific programmes located within four government clusters with the aim of consolidating them into a Programme of Action.

These were the Governance and Administration Cluster, the Social Cluster, the Economic Cluster and the Justice, Crime Prevention and Security Cluster.

Speaking at the Indaba, Provincial Director-General Dr Kwazi Mbanjwa said the clusters were vehicles for service delivery and should ensure that the implementation of the provincial Programme of Action and related projects were implemented earnestly.

He said it was imperative that the bottlenecks, such as funding and skills shortages, which hamper the implementation of the action programme were identified and dealt with.

“This means that we must do an audit of the bottlenecks and systematically indicate how we are going to address them within specific timeframes,” said Dr Mbanjwa, adding that tangible and clear plans were needed.

Some of the programmes mentioned by Dr Mbanjwa included strengthening the machinery of government to ensure that it has the capacity to respond to development imperatives, fighting poverty through improved service delivery and massification of skills development.

The programmes also include resourcing poor schools and monitoring learning outcomes, anti-poverty campaign, land and agrarian reform, infrastructure development, anti-poverty campaign, volunteer corps against crime, patriotism and social cohesion.

“All these programmes have timeframes,” Dr Mbanjwa noted.

Meanwhile, the cabinet will today join thousands of KwaZulu-Natal residents in a prayer meeting to remember those who died in various road crashes in the province early this week.

Premier Ndebele declared Thursday as a Day of Mourning, after 31 people were killed in car accidents in the province within a space of three hours.

The incidents took place on Monday at Inchanga near the Shongweni off-ramp, Nyanyadu near Dundee and Matubatuba.

The prayer will be held in Durban at Curries Fountain. - BuaNews