Parliament, Friday, 2 April 2021 – The Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs was briefed yesterday by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) on the local government support.
The meeting was a follow up on the committee’s engagement with the department on 23 February 2021 on the District Development Model (DDM) programme. The committee resolved then that the department should return with a presentation on the lessons learned from all other local government intervention programmes that were implemented before the DDM.
The committee Chairperson, Ms Faith Muthambi, said that the rationale for this presentation was to understand the link between the DDM and other previous intervention programmes, as well as the attributes that differentiate them.
“It is important that the DDM programme incorporates the successes of the previous programmes while avoiding repeating the mistakes made. We have noted how the previous programmes tended to start out with great fanfare and hope, only for this hope to fade out and give way to new promises,” said Ms Muthambi.
The committee has noted the striking methodological similarities between the DDM programme and the Urban Renewal and Integrated Sustainable Rural Development Programmes, which were there from 2001 to 2011.
The department told the committee that work is underway to develop a one plan document that will guide the implementation of the DDM programme.
The committee then raised reservations and advised the department to avoid recycling of ideas that failed in the past.
“We will be robust on these issues and we expect the department to be patient with us because we want programmes that not only work, but that have meaningful impact on our people,” said Ms Muthambi.
ISSUED BY THE PARLIAMENTARY COMMUNICATION SERVICES ON BEHALF OF THE CHAIRPERSON OF THE PORTFOLIO COMMITTEE ON COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS, MS FAITH MUTHAMBI.
For media enquiries or interviews with the Chairperson, please contact the committee’s Media Officer:
Name: Mr Justice Molafo
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Cell: 081 424 748
Email: jmolafo@parliament.gov.za
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