Department of Local Government concludes Councillor Training

The Department of Local Government has wrapped up its final leg of the 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 May - November 2022

The five councillor training workshops were held with the main theme being: “How to maintain public accountability, to ensure effective and efficient service delivery towards communities.”

This initiative started in 2019 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 objective of the Seasonal School 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 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. 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 further build on the knowledge gained.

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

Minister Bredell said councillor training initiatives such as these sessions, are more important than ever. Councillors today are faced with a very challenging working environment: Unstable coalitions and budget cuts make service delivery difficult, and this is intensified by population growth and climate change, which adds environmental challenges to already difficult conditions.

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.

The training workshops were well attended by 228 councillor representatives from all the five districts.  

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