The North West Provincial Coordinating Council recently held a meeting regarding the provision of services in some parts of the province, which includes issues such as ageing infrastructure, vandalism, as well as ongoing electricity cuts that have an adverse impact on the provision of water in various municipalities. The spokesperson for the North West Premier Sello Taitai explains that the provincial government has initiated a rapid service delivery monitoring and intervention strategy as part of ongoing efforts by the provincial government to solve the service delivery challenges.

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“The primary objective of this strategy is to focus on the inconsistent provision of basic services, improve information availability on service delivery challenges, and develop a system that will help the government resolve identified service delivery challenges. Communication by various government departments and institutions will be strengthened to keep residents abreast of intervention measures employed by the government to address service delivery backlogs,” he said.

Taitai further adds that residents will now have an opportunity to report and alert the government of any service interruption through a web-based free access online application that has been developed by the Office of the Premier.

Police in Lichtenburg arrested 24 suspects in connection with public violence and other crimes relating to incidents reported on Thursday 19 January 2023, where two trucks were torched and looted. North West provincial commissioner, Lieutenant General Sello Kwena, condemned the public violence incidents and asked community members to express their dissatisfaction in a peaceful and lawful manner.

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Meanwhile, North West Premier Bushy Maape urged various levels of government to work together and ensure the full implementation of the strategy.

“We are expected to give support to municipalities. We can’t cooperate if we do not know the issues that you are dealing with. We can’t provide support if you do not appreciate your challenges, that is why we are here of course, we are not engineers, we can’t come to these meetings and draw engineering plans as to how to solve water problems in whatever locality, we are not engineers. So we listen to the issues and develop strategies to address these issues,” said Maape.

Tatai says a Technical Team that has been assembled by Maape, is currently undertaking visits in various municipalities across the province to monitor provision of services in various government departments and institutions.

OFM News