The West Rand District Municipality together with the Gauteng Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs held a Governance summit at the Merafong Civic Centre on 28 June.
This was to assess and take stock of the challenges faced in terms of service delivery in West Rand based municipalities namely Randfontein, Westonaria and Merafong.
According to District spokesperson Dennis Mangope, the summit should be seen as a feedback platform were challenges faced by municipalities are tabled and solutions discussed.
“We do acknowledge the improvements in our local municipalities however this does not go without noting the weaknesses in Westonaria and Randfontein Local Municipality.
“In line with tackling challenges tabled, we will be focusing on the improvement of infrastructure, the provision of service delivery, good governance, public participation, financial management and integrated governance relations,” says Mangope.
He adds that more than 400 people attended the summit and also voiced their satisfactions and dissatisfactions with the municipalities and proposed ways to address their problems.
The MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs Ntombi Mekgwe took to the podium and said that in order to strengthen municipalities, communication between municipalities and their communities need to be improved.
“Local governments needs to outline the need to strengthen forms of communication and engagement between themselves and their communities.
“This will assist in noting challenges residents have and coming with ways of dealing with them effectively thus improving good governance,” says Mekgwe.
