KZN Cogta formulates Covid-19 recovery plan to support municipalities post-lockdown

The KwaZulu-Natal department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) has said that it would be fighting the Covid-19 pandemic and its aftermath with a capable, ethical and developmental local government in the 2020/2021 financial year.

KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Cogta Sipho Hlomuka on Friday tabled the department’s annual budget of R1.879 billion in a virtual sitting of the provincial legislature.

“We have been supporting municipalities with the cleaning of public places and facilitating Covid-19 awareness campaigns and distribution of hand sanitisers. To ensure municipal funding for Covid-19, we have facilitated the settlement of government debt owed to municipalities. We have also supported municipalities in revising their budgets to include Covid-19 allocations,” Hlomuka said.

The MEC said his department acknowledged the impact of Covid-19 had hit the province’s economy hard both in the formal and the informal sector.

This led the department to provide wide-ranging support to the province’s 54 municipalities in ensuring that informal traders, in particular, do receive relief as per the pronouncements made by the national government, Hlomuka said.

“We have also formulated a recovery plan to support the recovery of local government post-lockdown. It is based on five pillars, namely, governance, finance, basic service delivery, performance management and the brand new district development model. We are now engaging with all 54 municipalities to develop their own customised post-lockdown recovery plans,” said Hlomuka.

To mitigate the possibility that many local industries might close down post-Covid-19 and the ensuing job losses, KZN Cogta will ensure that municipalities will be supported with infrastructure development and measures to support surviving industries, attracting investment and reducing the Red Tape, Hlomuka said, adding that the department would also facilitate completion of infrastructure, especially water infrastructure projects.

“As important as the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic is at the moment, it cannot detract from our long-term vision of creating a capable, ethical and developmental local government in KZN. As we continue to mould our municipalities and traditional institutions in this fashion, we are already seeing the benefits of this transformation in our Covid-19 interventions.”

(Compiled by Makhosandile Zulu)

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.