Department of Local Government wrapped up Councillor Training in districts

The Department of Local Government has wrapped up its final leg of Seasonal School which took place in five District Municipalities namely; Garden Route District, Cape Winelands District, Overberg District, West Coast and Central Karoo as from 08 May until 06 June 2023

The five (5) councillor training workshops were held under a theme “Consequence Management:  Financial Misconduct”

This initiative started in 2019 is rolled out in fulfilment of the Departmental mandate obtained from the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, “The Constitution”, Section 154 of the Constitution requires the Western Cape Government to support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities in the province to manage their own affairs, exercise their powers and perform their functions.  The workshops also contribute to the fulfilment of the Western Cape Government vision inspired priority “empower people”, where citizens of the Western Cape are capacitated in their various roles. 

The objective of the Seasonal Schools is to address governance challenges faced by municipalities, whilst ensuring the capacitation of councillors, enhancing ethical leadership, stimulating responsible citizenship among councillors and contributing to the improvement of the pool of skilled leadership in the local government sphere in the Western Cape.

The Department previously ran workshops focusing on Ethical Leadership, Servant Leadership and how to maintain public accountability to ensure service delivery.  For this  leg of the Seasonal School the focus was on Consequence Management: Financial Misconduct , and was to designed to address the following topical issues:

• Definition of concepts – Consequence Management -Financial Misconduct
• Legislative Framework of Consequence Management
• Processes and Procedures
• The Regulations
• Disciplinary boards
• Investigations

The Department has successfully concluded the five workshops as planned and it achieved its target across the province.  There was a broad participation of councillors from all the five districts in attendance, and a request has been made to . All sessions were showered with unquestionable positivity and the desire to learn. Feedback received indicate that the training has been of great value to councillors in that they are exploring pathways to build up on the knowledge gained.

The Department is committed to provide continuous capacity building initiatives that will benefit councillors in the Western Cape.

Training remains a powerful tool for councillors to develop themselves to their full potential. As such, I congratulate my Department of Local Government for its commitment and focus on providing and supporting councillor training initiatives.