Performance information
SALGA parliamentary office
The Constitution of South Africa allows SALGA ten non-voting seats in the NCOP which provides local government with a platform from which to engage with NCOP and articulate local government interests. The parliamentary office of SALGA facilitated the participation of SALGA in NCOP proceedings and its select committees, as well as participation in the portfolio committees of the National Assembly. SALGA engaged members of the national assembly and the NCOP on specific matters as part of its lobbying work.
SALGA and the moral regeneration movement brought South Africa’ s political parties contesting the 2016 local government election together to formally commit and pledge themselves to adhere to good values and ethics to ensure responsible and ethical political leadership prior to and during the elections.
The signing of the charter of elections ethics took place at Constitutional Hill, in Johannesburg on Wednesday, 13 April 2016. Among the political parties that attended the signing ceremony were the ACDP, AGANG, AIC, ANC, APC COPE, DA, EFF, IFP, NFP, PAC and UDM.
The charter promoted social cohesion and nation building, and raised awareness around the importance of voting. Most importantly, it promoted free and fair elections based on tolerance and the outcome of acceptable results.
The Charter outlined a number of values and ethics that political parties needed to promote, support and adhere to during the elections. It required them to strive to elect candidates who are ethical, principled and competent. Most importantly, political candidates should always aim to serve their communities and the country before their party or themselves. The charter is part of a long-term project to build and instil good values in society.
Meeting of MMCs for human settlements from metros
MinMEC will be the key platform for debate and decision-making by the Minister and MECs regarding the proposed new accreditation and assignment framework. It is therefore critical that SALGA take steps to strengthen and unify the voice of the metros in this key IGR forum.
To this end, SALGA convened an inaugural meeting of MMCs for Human Settlements from the metro municipalities, hosted by the President of SALGA, on 15 Feb 2017. The meeting was the first effort to bring together the metro MMCs prior to every human settlement MinMEC, in order to:
• Brief them on the most pressing issues before MinMEC, and their implications for local government;
• Provide a platform for shaping a common metro position in MinMEC; and
• Strengthen SALGA’ s support to metros.
The meeting addressed the following policy issues:
• Accreditation and assignment of the housing function;
• The urban settlements development grant; and
• The challenge of evictions and unauthorised land invasions.
Anti-corruption
In commemoration of international anticorruption day, SALGA organised a roundtable dialogue focused on engaging key role-players on:
• The assessment framework and assessment indicators for anti-fraud and anti-corruption measures in municipalities as developed by SALGA;
• The data and research gathered during the assessment of anti-fraud and anticorruption measures in municipalities; and
• The draft peer review mechanism for anti-corruption developed by SALGA.
Political parties signing the pledge
85 SALGA ANNUAL REPORT 2016 / 17