The only way for people and communities to receive tangible and real service delivery is through the effective coordination of all three spheres of government.
The Provincial Government of the Western Cape is committed to coordinate the planning, budgeting, and implementation of the three spheres of government to guarantee the delivery of services to the people we serve.
There are four challenges that, if overcome, will achieve this.
The first challenge is a lack of integrated planning and budgeting. Separate, unsynchronised planning and budgeting processes between local, provincial and national government have contributed to a lack of integrated planning and delivery at grassroots level.
The second challenge is a lack of coordinated support to municipalities. Capacity-building programmes within various municipalities are not informed by an over-arching provincial programme of support and, as a result, capacity support is fragmented, there is a duplication of effort, and a municipality's improvement (or deterioration) cannot be adequately assessed.
The third challenge is a lack of integrated service delivery. People often have to travel significant distances to access different government services. For example, a person applying for a disability grant may not have an ID book, but s/he will usually have to travel to two different locations to apply for an ID book and apply for a disability grant. While the Thusong Centres were established to address precisely this problem, there is usually only one Centre in each municipality, and most municipalities in the Western Cape are hundreds of square kilometres in extent.
The final challenge is municipal reporting and meeting fatigue. Municipalities are constantly inundated with requests for information and data from various provincial and national sector departments. This has resulted in high levels of frustration and "reporting fatigue". Most departments have created fora through which they engage municipalities, and these fora cause duplication and "meeting fatigue".
In order to achieve real service delivery, the Western Cape provincial government will focus on the following:
1. Problem: There is a lack of integrated planning and budgeting
Solution:
2. Problem: There is a lack of coordinated support to municipalities
Solution:
3. Problem: There is a lack of integrated service delivery
Solution: The Thusong Centres will expand opportunities by helping people to help themselves.
Expansion of Thusong Centres
Establishment of Thusong Zones National and provincial departments and other key services (especially postal and banking services) will be encouraged to relocate to "Thusong Zones".
Mobile Thusong Centres
Thusong extension service
4. Problem: Municipalities experience reporting and meeting fatigue
Solution:
This provincial strategic objective is key to the success of all the other provincial strategic objectives since it supports integrated, synchronised actions of the three spheres of government. Moreover, it is the key to giving people the opportunity to live the lives they value.