Western Cape Municipalities Urged to Step up to Boost Economy

On Wednesday, 5 March 2025, Premier Alan Winde chaired a meeting of the Premier’s Coordinating Forum (PCF), held in Stellenbosch. It was the first PCF of 2025.

The PCF is a consultative intergovernmental forum aimed at strengthening partnerships and relations between the Western Cape Government (WCG) and the province’s municipalities.

“This gathering feels like a family reunion,” said Premier Winde as he delivered his opening remarks. He added, “And as a ‘family’ we must work even harder over the next 5 years if we are to ramp up our efforts to enable businesses to grow our economy and create more jobs. We are under no illusions that this will be easy. We have to do more with less. But by working closer together we will achieve our objectives.”

The  WCG will be stepping up in 2025 to help the private sector grow and to keep creating more jobs and equipping our residents with the skills and education to get those jobs.

Provincial Strategic Plan 2025-2030

The PCF was used to further unpack the Western Cape Government’s Provincial Strategic Plan 2025-2030.

“What sets this PSP apart from previous policy documents is the increased emphasis on residents and their needs. Just as we are doing everything possible to help businesses create employment, we must also equip municipalities with the resources and direction they need to improve service delivery and to assist us in achieving the maximum economic growth potential out of every region in the province,” continued the Premier.

The PSP outlines high-level priorities and goals for the provincial government over the next 5 years to enhance residents’ quality of life.

It provides a framework for alignment with national and local government policy and strategy by applying a whole-of-government/whole-of-society approach that is focused on equipping residents and businesses of the Western Cape with the skills they need to prosper.

It was emphasised that the mandate of PCF dovetails with the PSP and its priorities.

The key elements of the PSP are:

• Growth For Jobs strategy – assisting businesses to help grow the economy and create more jobs.
• Safety – creating safer communities for residents and the economy to thrive.
• An educated, healthy and caring society – ensuring every resident has access to the opportunities they need to live healthy, meaningful and dignified lives in an inclusive society.
• Innovation, culture and governance – employing futures thinking, resident-centric delivery rooted in innovation, integration and collaboration.

The Premier said, “The objective of the PSP is helping businesses to grow so they can create jobs. Through this, we can help our residents to lead the lives they deserve and value.”

District Development Model

The PCF received a presentation on the District Development Model (DDM). Both the WCG and the City of Cape Town are currently in discussions with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs on rectifying their material concerns about the DDM’s regulations which includes:

• The DDM represents significant constitutional overreach into the local government sphere.
• It is a duplication of existing mechanisms, which work, if applied properly.
• DDM regulations require action that go beyond the powers of the Intergovernmental Regulatory Framework Act
• The DDM will cost local government money and resources, needed by residents, to comply.

2023/24 Local Budget Performance Review

The Western Cape Government’s recently published 2023/24 Local Government Budget Performance Review was tabled at the PCF.

This first-of-its-kind publication offers a transparent and data-driven overview of the financial health of all 30 municipalities in the province for the 2023/24 financial year.

It has the dual purpose of enhancing transparency and accountability and supporting informed decision-making and public engagement through an analysis of the financial health of the local government sector.

The Premier urged municipalities to keep striving for stable, good governance and improved service delivery for their residents. “This must become a habit. We can be proud of our solid track record of clean governance that we have built up over the years. As municipalities, you are at the coalface of delivery. It is vital that you demonstrate to the residents we serve that their money is being spent responsibly and transparently to improve their lives, particularly in the uncertain times we find ourselves in where we still do not have a tabled national budget,” he stressed.

Navigating the impact of termination US aid funding

Dr Keith Cloete, Head of the Western Cape Department of Health and Wellness, gave a presentation on the impact of the sudden termination of funding by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) to several non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in the Western Cape that have for years been working with the provincial government in addressing, primarily, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis.

The funding cut threatens approximately 10 NGOs and nearly 700 jobs that were directly supported by USAID, amounting to a loss of around R360 million in healthcare funding for the province. Three districts in the province (City of Cape Town, Cape Winelands, West Coast) will be the hardest hit.

The WCG will do everything it can to ensure that there is no interruption in healthcare services. To support those on ART, the WCG is implementing several measures, including multi-month dispensing for up to six months for stable patients, repeat prescription collection strategies, a 28-day grace period for late collections, automatic script renewals, planning for an ‘e-scripting’ initiative. Additionally, the WCG will rapidly scale up the ‘Make Every Contact Count’ strategy to strengthen HIV counselling services.

The PCF resolved to closely monitor this issue and to explore options as to how to mitigate the impact of this move.

Describing it as heart breaking, Premier Winde continued, “This government is determined to safeguard the progress we have made in fighting TB and HIV/AIDS. We will continue to work with our partners to find solutions and we call on the municipalities in our province to work with us as we respond.”

SASSA migration crisis

The serious challenges experienced by many social grant beneficiaries in the Western Cape in migrating from their South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) Gold Cards to Postbank Black Cards were also discussed at the PCF.

While managing this process (as well as the general operations around social grants) is not a provincial mandate, the Western Cape Government is more than willing to step in to ensure better management of this pressing matter and that beneficiaries can access the grants they need.

Western Cape municipalities were urged to assist in communicating to beneficiaries where they can access sites in their municipal areas so they can be assisted.

Premier Winde concluded, “This entire process was flawed from the start, but we will do whatever we can to help our residents, particularly because these beneficiaries are some of our most vulnerable.”