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As Operation Vulindlela is expected to enter its second phase, government will focus on stabilising the performance of local government to address the immediate challenges in electricity, water, and other basic services. 

“Without these services, businesses cannot function, and investors cannot invest,” the Deputy Minister of Finance, David Masondo, said on Tuesday.

Addressing the Old Mutual Thought Leaders Forum, Masondo said in the long term, the institutional structure and funding model for local government will be reviewed to ensure that municipalities are financially and operationally sustainable. 

“The ultimate objective should be to balance the need for truly local government that is responsive to the needs of a community, with the need for economies of scale in the delivery of services such as water and electricity.

“However, none of the challenges facing local government will be addressed, if we do not ensure that capable and qualified people are appointed to municipal administrations. The number of people employed in local government has significantly grown since 2006, without a corresponding improvement in outcomes,” the Deputy Minister said.

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He said instances of corruption and patronage in the appointment of senior managers, as well as political interference, have contributed to instability and a loss of technical skills.

“To rebuild capability in local government, we will strengthen the regulation and oversight of the appointment process for senior managers and protect the administration from undue political interference,” Masondo said.

Operation Vulindlela is a joint initiative of the Presidency and National Treasury to accelerate the implementation of structural reforms and support economic recovery.

“The second new frontier of reform is to address spatial inequality through housing, transport, and urban policy that turns our cities into dynamic centres of economic activity.

“The high cost of transport shuts out millions of South Africans from employment opportunities, creating labour market frictions and preventing job creation. The lowest quintile of households per capita spends more than 37% of their after-tax income on direct transport costs.

“To promote spatial integration, we will use our housing programs to enable people to live closer to areas of economic opportunity, rather than building houses on the urban periphery,” the Deputy Minister said.

This will require the release of well-located public land for social housing, as well as a review of regulations to unlock investment in low-income housing in our cities.

“In addition, we must shift our expenditure on housing from a supply-driven model, through which the government constructs fully complete houses and hands them over to beneficiaries, to a more demand-driven model that provides people with the means to find housing in areas where they want to live. This will also allow us to leverage private sector capital beyond our fiscal resources,” he said.

Government will also work to restore the passenger rail system to operation and invest in integrated public transport systems that are affordable, reliable, and safe.

The last new area of reform that Operation Vulindlela will prioritise over the coming years is digital transformation.

Digital transformation

In the absence of a clear, focused, and effective digital transformation strategy, South Africa is lagging behind its peers.

“To address this, Operation Vulindlela will work closely with the responsible departments to put in place a comprehensive roadmap for digital transformation focused on digital payments, system inter-operability, and data integration, as the basis for the digitisation of services. 

“This roadmap will support innovation, bring millions of South Africans into the digital economy, and improve access to services. These reforms, in addition to those already completed or underway, will fundamentally transform South Africa’s economy,” the Deputy Minister said. - SAnews.gov.za

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