MBOMBELA – The provincial government’s so-called war rooms have barely been launched, and the project is coming under fire.
The deadline by which councillors must establish these entities is the end of November, but it remains unclear how the war rooms are supposed to work.
The premier’s cabinet approved Operation Vuka Sisebente in February.
Officially its aim is to reform the existing ward-committee systems already in place in local municipalities and to improve service delivery by increasing the stakeholder involvement.
A war room is supposed to be established by each ward councillor in his or her ward. The councillor will chair it.
According to the presentation on the operation, presented to Mbombela councillors by the Office of the Premier two weeks ago, ward committees will remain intact, and have representation in the war room.
A community development worker (CDW) is to be the secretary of each war room. CDWs are currently based in the provincial department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta).
An office needs to be set up for the CDW, from where he or she will work from, and where the weekly meetings will take place.
Each ward councillor must further invite representatives from stakeholder organisations which are active in their wards.
These can include community policing forums, cooperatives, local businesses, clinic committees, to send representative to its weekly meetings.
The meetings are proposed to take place on Mondays from 08:00 to 10:00.
Lowvelder understands the representatives must be approved by the Speakers in the local municipalities.
Mr Jo Koster, former DA caucus leader in Mbombela, said the Office of the Premier indicated that it would be funding the operation.
“But they don’t know how much it will cost. And who is going to be able to attend a weekly meeting on a Monday morning? Surely not anybody who is gainfully employed.”
Bushbuckridge Residents Association (BRA) MPL, Mr Cleopas Maunye, was even more scathing. The war rooms have already been launched in
Bushbuckridge, where the party controls a ward. Maunya said they will never work.
“There is a difference between provincial and local government structures. Where is this legislated? What will govern this, to who will they account?
“Whoever misled the premier about this war-room idea must also inform him that there is legislation in this country.
“Where are they going to get the money? We don’t even have nurses. CDWs are not well capacitated. They don’t have matric, they know nothing about government. What are they going to talk about for two hours every week? ”
Koster argued that the whole idea is misguided. Poor service delivery is not the result of too little community stakeholder involvement, but of unqualified persons employed in municipalities.
He says it is clear that the ANC-led government intends to use Operation Vuka Sisebente as an electioneering tool ahead of next year’s local-government elections and cadre redeployment.
“These war rooms look more like campaign offices every day,” he said.
When approached for comment on the matter, the spokesman for the Office of the Premier, Mr Zibonele Mncwango, promised to respond before the newspaper went to press. He did not.
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