Legislature launches speakers forum
The KZN Speakers Forum is a strategic platform designed to foster collaboration, enhance oversight, and build stronger links between the provincial legislature and municipal councils across the province.
To build stronger links between the provincial government and municipal councils, the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature launched a Speakers Forum in Pietermaritzburg last Friday.
The speakers of Ugu District Municipality (Sizwe Ngcobo), Umzumbe Municipality (Simphiwe Mthethwa), and Umuziwabantu Municipality (Petros Shebi) attended the launch of the KZN Provincial Speakers Forum.
The speaker of the KZN Legislature, Nontembeko Boyce, described the forum as a strategic platform designed to foster collaboration, enhance oversight, and build stronger links between the provincial legislature and municipal councils across the province.
She said the establishment of the forum is a landmark moment in the province’s democratic journey and a vital step toward a more responsive and accountable system of governance.
Boyce explained that the forum represented a shared commitment to honest leadership, collaborative oversight, and better service delivery.
“Our people don’t see separate spheres of government; they just want results. This forum helps us move forward together,” she said.
Boyce, who is from the South Coast, said the establishment of a Speakers Forum was not a new concept.
She said it revitalised work initiated under former speaker Peggy Nkonyeni and deputy speaker Mtholephi Mthimkhulu, and later advanced by speaker Lydia Johnson during the fourth and fifth legislative terms.
Boyce said the objectives of the forum are modelled on the National Parliament Speakers Forum, saying that the provincial body will provide a platform for municipal speakers to share oversight strategies and capacity-building resources, strengthen inter-governmental relations between councils and the legislature, address service-delivery challenges through coordinated responses, exchange knowledge, skills, and governance strategies, and align Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) with legislative priorities.
“We may come from different municipalities, but we are united by purpose. Let this forum be a space where we support and uplift each other. In that unity, we find real power to change people’s lives. None of us studied specifically to be public representatives; we succeed through the capable, professional, and dedicated technical teams at the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) and the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature,” said Boyce.
Meanwhile, SALGA CEO Sithole Mbanga said for local government to be truly effective, it must be trusted by the people it serves.
Mbanga said the KZN Speakers Forum was not just a platform for legislative exchange, but a commitment to deepening democracy and restoring the public’s faith in government.
He said the forum represented their united stand as speakers and municipal leaders to ensure that trust is not a distant ideal, but a daily reality for every resident in KwaZulu-Natal.
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