Modukanele concerned about council’s service delivery
The Assistant Minister of Local Government and Rural Development, Setlhabelo Modukanele has requested councils’ technical teams to identify and solve problems that might hinder them from achieving their service delivery to the public.
Addressing the councils’ technical teams at their retreat that was attended by different heads of departments in Selebi-Phikwe recently that ended on Friday, Modukanele stressed: “You need to identify and address existing and emerging challenges that hinder decision-making processes as the first step towards progress and equally embrace and adopt new priorities.
“Let me remind you that time is not an ally and our people are losing patience with why we cannot successfully implement critical projects from time to time, despite a considerable amount of investment into such projects,” he said.
He added that to an average Motswana, the sentiment is, if the right steps are taken immediately, there is no reason why they cannot achieve their dream of promoting sustainable livelihoods and development.
Modukanele said some of their strategic objectives as government is to respond to the growing needs of people in the delivery of services. Also, projects have been fraught with implementation challenges as he has noted in the past. He, however, said these challenges have nothing to do with funding or availability of resources, but rather ineptitude on the part of the implementers, leading to delays and substandard execution of projects, despite a considerable amount of investment in infrastructure development. In addition, he said as they are midway through the ministry’s new strategic direction, anchored on the six pillars including providing effective and efficient local services, and infrastructure and building resilient, inclusive, and sustainable local economies, he implored them to go beyond their limitations to fasttrack and facilitate village economies, community development and rural industries. He said it is time to identify commitment gaps in their efforts to transform livelihoods in their respective districts.
He said as a technical team, they should reflect and check if they are in line with their strategic objectives, which include strengthening local governance through the fight against corruption, building resilient communities by facilitating ease of doing business, rural development and procurement of locally-produced goods and services, promote social inclusion through the implementation of National Social Protection Framework and distribution of food commodities, to develop social infrastructure through development and maintenance of social infrastructure as well as waste management and disposal, to promote communication education, and public awareness through a robust Stakeholder Engagement Plan, to enhance human capital and skills development.