PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has promised more support and reforms to make the local government sphere sustainable.
He also said there was an urgent priority to ensure a secure and reliable supply of water across the country.
Delivering his State of the Nation Address, the president said a capable state should start where people live and work.
“In many cities and towns across the country, roads are not maintained, water and electricity supply is often disrupted, refuse is not collected and sewage runs in the streets.
“In part, this has happened because many municipalities lack the technical skills and resources required to meet people’s needs,” he said.
Ramaphosa also said many municipalities have not reinvested the revenue they earn from services into the upkeep of infrastructure.
“Starting this year, we will work with our municipalities to establish professionally managed, ring-fenced utilities for water and electricity services to ensure adequate investment and maintenance.”
Ramaphosa noted that many of the challenges in municipalities arose from the design of the local government system.
“We will, therefore, undertake extensive consultation to develop an updated White Paper on Local Government to outline a modern and fit-for-purpose local government system.
“We will review the funding model for municipalities as many of them do not have a viable and sustainable revenue base.”
He also said they will continue to work with traditional leaders in the implementation of local development programmes and expand the support to municipalities that require assistance, drawing on the lessons of the Presidential eThekwini Working Group.
“We are seeing great progress in eThekwini as we implement the district development model, which enables all key role players in government, business, labour, and community-based organisations to work together.”
Ramaphosa also said they were strengthening the role of the Public Service Commission in the appointment of key people such as directors-general, deputy directors-general, chief executive officers of state-owned enterprises, board members, and other senior positions.
“We will introduce a graduate recruitment scheme so that we may attract the best and the brightest into the public service.”
He added that they will harness technology to transform the way that government works.
“We will invest in digital public infrastructure to give South Africans access to government services any time, anywhere, through a relaunched gov.za platform. At the heart of this transformation will be the implementation of a digital identity system.”
He said the measures would transform the relationship between citizens and government, and create one government that was accessible to every person at a touch.
Meanwhile, Ramaphosa said there was an urgent priority to ensure a secure and reliable supply of water across the country.
He noted that cities, towns, and villages were experiencing more and more frequent water shortages as a result of failing water infrastructure.
“We are, therefore, taking a series of decisive actions to resolve the water crisis, to enable our people to get water where they live, whether in townships or rural areas.”
He said the government was investing heavily in expanding the water resources.
“To date, the Infrastructure Fund has secured R23 billion for seven large water infrastructure projects,” he said.
“We have ended delays in major water infrastructure projects like Phase 2 of the Lesotho Highlands Water Project and the uMkhomazi Dam. Work is under way to prepare for construction of the Ntabelanga Dam on the uMzimvubu River to supply additional water for domestic use and irrigation in the Eastern Cape.”
Ramaphosa said the government will complete within the next year the establishment of the National Water Resource Infrastructure Agency to unlock much greater investment in water projects.
“Through the Water Services Amendment Bill, we will introduce a licensing system for water service providers and remove licenses where providers do not meet the standards for quality drinking water.”