By: Staff Reporter
When municipalities are dysfunctional and are run by incompetent people, jobs and businesses are negatively affected, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on Friday while addressing the Mpumalanga business forum.
He said municipalities were the engine rooms of government.
The president told scores of business people that municipalities will grow business if they are run by competent people.
“When municipalities are dysfunctional, it directly affects businesses and it affects employment. Permits are not granted on time, resulting in lost productivity and delayed plans.
Unreliable supply of water or electricity results in revenue losses and increased operational costs”, he added.
Ramaphosa admitted that the majority of businesses failed due to a lack of basic service delivery such as the supply of clean water and an uninterrupted supply of electricity.
He assured business people that his administration will focus on service delivery and other challenges at local government in order to preserve and prevent more businesses from shutting down or relocating to other places.
“We want to create a more conducive environment for business, for investment, and for job creation.
The District Development Model represents an all-of-government approach.
The model is about integrated and responsive planning, budgeting, and implementation to leverage the endowments of the respective districts for the benefit of communities”.
The President began his countrywide presidential imbizo roadshow in March this year, canvassing communities in North West and Free State as part of the government’s district development model (DDM).
The aim of the imbizo is to intensively engage communities, bringing together local, provincial, and national governments in a bid to have a streamlined approach to resolving service delivery issues.
The Imbizo’s has not been smooth sailing Ramaphosa and his government was met by hostile community members who complained about the poor state of their towns. Members of the community complained about potholes, lack of municipal services, unemployment, the influx of foreign nationals, and the lack of decent housing, among many other issues.
