Bridge the Gap: War Room for Service Delivery
Residents of Ekurhuleni and Citizens of Gauteng have just had enough of poor service delivery.
In the past few months there has been a significant increase in the number of community uprisings and service delivery protests that aim to get government’s attention to act.
The Local Governments of Gauteng with the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs have established a Service Delivery War Room to improve responsiveness to communities needs.
Premier David Makhura has come down harshly on the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) process, saying that the IDP has recently lost meaning and is the core reason why so many people are embarking on protest action.
The ANC has committed to review the current structures and processes of community participation. It has become clear that a review is essential so that the people’s democracy is expanded, institutions of democracy are improved and enriched.
During a conference of municipal councillors last week, the Premier mandated the political leaders to do a detailed review of why people have lost confidence in the current structures and processes of public participation, and what needs to be done to build popular democracy and put people’s power back in action.
The main focus will be to re-energise our communities and ensure they actively participate in community development in a constructive and proactive manner.
The conference also established the Service Delivery War Room machinery from ward to provincial level, in order to improve the responsiveness and focus all resources of provincial and local government in a coordinated way, as part of an active government approach.
The Premier committed to empower ward councillors and place them at the center of building local popular democracy and people’s power on the one hand, and enhancing capacity for rapid response to unblock service delivery and resolve community complaints on the other.
Together we can succeed if all stakeholders contribute to the basket of support, which addresses and responds positively to our municipal challenges. Together we move Ekurhuleni forward.
