SALGA annual report 2016/17 SALGA ANNUAL REPORT 201617 PRINTED FINAL | Page 16

Executive summary CAPACITY BUILDING PROGRAMME No. of Province people trained Local Democracy and Local Government Learning Programme (LODLOG) Eastern Cape 3 Free State 2 Gauteng 0 KwaZulu-Natal 2 Limpopo 5 Mpumalanga 2 Northern Cape 6 North West 0 Western Cape 0 TOTAL 20 No. of Province people trained Gender Mainstreaming and Local Governance (GEMLOC) Eastern Cape 0 Free State 0 Gauteng 0 KwaZulu-Natal 0 Limpopo 0 Mpumalanga 0 Northern Cape 13 North West 0 Western Cape 12 TOTAL 25 The councillor development programme (CDP) is an LGSETA-funded programme aimed at building a cadre of effective and efficient councillors. The outcome of this programme is a high level of professional competence (knowledge and skill), experience, behaviour and ethics on the part of elected officials of local government. In the period under review, 8 training sessions were convened in the Northern Cape, North West, Mpumalanga and Western Cape and a total of 115 delegates (councillors) attended and certificates of competence were issued to councillors deemed competent in programme. A total of 3183 councillors have been trained since the beginning of the programme and 2924 certificates of competence have been issued Prior, during and post the election, SALGA supported municipalities to manage the local government elections and related matters to 16 ensure that the desired outcome of a free and fair election was achieved. A set of guiding documents was developed and launched at a SALGA national members assembly held on 8 - 20 May 2016 and shared with municipalities to prepare for the transition occasioned by the elections. SALGA’s immediate responsibility post the local government elections was to ensure that the new councillors became up-to-speed with their roles and responsibilities as soon as possible. The outcome of the various programmes rolled out was a predominately smooth transition and hand over from the old to the new leadership. Other outcomes included the seamless transition of work in progress, and an efficient transfer of institutional knowledge. That these outcomes were achieved in the vast majority of municipalities is a tribute to the effectiveness of SALGA’s various programmes and training initiatives. As part of managing the transition, SALGA successfully lobbied for an ex-gratia payment to non-returning councillors from the national fiscus. All councillors who served for a continuous period of more than 24 months received the payment. The outcome is to ensure that these councillors are able to make a successful transition post their period in leadership. Another key milestone for the year was the convening of the provincial and national SALGA conferences. Resolutions of the provincial conferences were consolidated and informed the draft strategic framework which was then discussed at the national conference. The conference resolutions were then translated into the SALGA strategic plan 2017-2022. Another key outcome of the SALGA conference was the election of new SALGA leadership, which was achieved successfully in all the provinces as well as at the national conference. The outcome