Effective service delivery key to local economic growth

• Published date: 20 May 2022
• Publication title: South African Official News

President Cyril Ramaphosa says effective service delivery is 'vitally important' not only for local communities but also for creating a fertile environment for economic growth.

The President was speaking to a gathering of business people in Carolina, Mpumalanga, where he and a host of ministers, provincial leaders and local government leaders are expected to hold the Presidential Imbizo later today.

The Presidential Imbizo is a platform for all three spheres of government and the community to participate in a two-way engagement on the implementation of government's programmes.

'Service delivery must come to our people so that our people…can live a better life.'

He said service delivery must be carried out by the various entities, businesses and others in the area so that they are able to create a more conducive environment for business, for investment and ultimately for job creation.

'It is vitally important that our local government structures must function effectively because… this will lead to the attraction of businesses to their areas, they will lead to jobs being created and our towns and our municipal areas thriving,' he said.

During the engagement with business, the President sought to lay out the effectiveness of government's District Development Model (DDM) programme.

The DDM aims to step up local, provincial and national government's coherence, cooperation and impact on service delivery with a special concentration on the country's district and metro municipalities.

'[The DDM] enables provincial and national government to bring together our capacities, our capabilities in assisting various levels of government, particularly local government. And this is part of building a capable state [as well as] an ethical and developmental state.

'This is the...