Service delivery

A single act of service holds the power to transform lives, offering hope and dignity to those who need it most. For underprivileged communities, these acts are not just gestures of kindness, they are lifelines that open doors to opportunity, resilience, and a better future.

Providing essential services like identity documents, water, sanitation, electricity, and health services has a direct impact on improving lives, raising living standards, fostering community development, and enhancing citizen satisfaction.

The provision of housing and basic services has been at the heart of our development agenda since 1994, and the Census 2022 results show that we have made massive progress in changing lives in this area.

By Nomonde Mnukwa

Local government has long been recognised as the sphere of government that is closest to the people and crucial in improving their lives. It is responsible for the provision of basic services such as water, electricity and sanitation.

On 11 February 1990, hundreds of people gathered outside Victor Verster prison in the Cape for the release of Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela. Affectionately known as Madiba, he had spent 27 years in prison fighting to secure freedom and equality for all people.

News of his release had spread around the world and he walked out of prison flanked by many people. His release was welcomed across the country and the world and most people saw him for the first time the day he was released.

One of the world’s most influential leaders of all time has proven that great leadership begins with a servant heart. Nelson Mandela’s legacy is characterised by his humility, passion for people, equality and serving.

Not only did Mandela serve the nation as South Africa’s first democratic president but he also played an instrumental role in fostering a spirit of nation building and togetherness.

In 1990, the winds of change were slowly sweeping our nation, and on 11 February 1990 South Africa was abuzz with the news of the release of former President Nelson Mandela.

Having spent most of his adult life behind bars, Nelson Mandela was more myth than a man.  He along with others such as OR Tambo were giant figures in our national psyche, but few people had ever seen or interacted with them.

On 11 February 1990 all this changed; with the eyes of the entire world upon us, South Africans waited with baited breath to meet the man behind the legend.

Less than four weeks ago, a new district development model that will revolutionise the way local government works and interacts for the benefit of South Africans was launched in Lusikisiki, Eastern Cape.

Following that success, President Cyril Ramaphosa will on Friday (18 October 2019) launch the second pilot of the model in eThekwini Metro, KwaZulu-Natal.

The article by Sandile Ngidi on titled “SA’s failure to communicate” (Sunday Independent, July 3) is disconcerting and seeks to disempower South Africans as architects of our shared vision of a prosperous, democratically rooted nation.

It is a thinly veiled attempt to drag South Africans back to the hollow “big man-failed African state’’  construct where our collective woes, real or imagined, are conveniently transferred to the feet of a single individual or distant elite instead of reflecting on our own agency in the unfolding narrative.