South African Cities Network CEO Sithole Mbanga says despite the many successes that have been made since the amalgamation of municipalities, more still needs to happen to transform the local sphere of government.
Speaking ahead of the Africities Summit to be hosted by the City of Johannesburg from 29 November to 03 December 2015, Mbanga said this will require strategic partnerships with all sectors of society, from the private sector, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) right through to the media, as this will encourage public participation and contribute to development. He said local government needs to be seen as an important sphere and it must be empowered with functions and resources that will help it deliver services more efficiently, particularly as we celebrate 15 years of local government in South Africa. “Provide to local government the appropriate human and non – human resources in order to enable municipalities to play their role competitively in the development of the state” he said. “We need a strong world, but a strong world needs strong cities, in the same manner those strong towns and localities require strong rural areas to survive,” he said. “In other words, there is a direct correlation between the performance local governments to other spheres of governance.”
Metropolitan municipalities like Johannesburg, eThekwini and Tshwane, have rolled out sophisticated bus transit infrastructure and free wireless broadband connectivity at several hubs.
