MBOMBELA – The province’s war rooms will not cost it any additional taxpayers’ money, as they are a meeting of minds to solve service-delivery problems. This according to the premier, Mr David Mabuza.
He referred to Operation Vuka Sisebente during his State of the Province Address last Friday.
These service-delivery engines are dubbed “war rooms” and aims to focus on community involvement in the process for direct inputs and avoiding a duplication of structures. They would exist at ward-, local- and provincial-government levels.
“It will avoid that services are delivered in a scattered fashion,” Mabuza explained at a conference on Monday.
At a ward level, all organised structures, from schools to ratepayers’ associations, are supposed to be represented.
The elected ward councillor will chair it and community development workers (CDW), currently based in the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta), will act as secretaries.
They are supposed to meet once a month and bring all the issues of the community to the table. These will then be taken to the municipal war room, chaired by the mayor.
“The issues that belong to the local municipality will be attended to by the local municipality. Others will be brought to the provincial-level war rooms.”
These will consist of HODs and MECs, with the director-general as secretary. Provincial issues should be addressed here, and national ones referred to national government.
“All of them must meet in a month cycle,” Mabuza said. “Witin the following month we must bring responses to the people. Otherwise all of us are scattered all over trying to respond to issues.”
He said no additional funds were needed for the operations. “We are just bringing together existing structures.”
Ward councillors had a deadline of the end of November to establish their war rooms. Ms Trudie Grove-Morgan, ward councillor in Mbombela, said ward 40’s war room has been meeting on a monthly basis ever since.
The secretary sends the minutes to the Speaker’s office in Mbombela, but to date not even an aknowledgement of receipt has been received from the local war room.
She added that it cost stakeholders money to attend and communicate, and one of the issues was becoming them not receiving a stipends.
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