Thousands of people from the Sedibeng District Municipality are expected to descend on the Sharpeville cricket pitch on Friday, for the District Development Model (DDM) Presidential Imbizo, led by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

The DDM Presidential Imbizo is a critical platform that ensures that the voices and perspectives of communities are heard and that action is taken to remedy their challenges.

In an interview with SAnews, Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) Deputy Director General for Content Processing and Dissemination, Regomoditswe Mavimbela, explained that the President-led imbizo brings together leaders from all three spheres of government and the community in order to hash out and find possible solutions to the problems besetting their areas.

Mavimbela urged the community of Sedibeng District Municipality to make their voices heard at the imbizo and to hold public officials to account.

“In his State of the Nation Address [President Cyril Ramaphosa] said ‘Leave no one behind’. It was specifically to ensure that all South Africans rally behind this programme of the President.

“Government is set for the people and this imbizo… is really about the people of Sedibeng coming together and engaging with the principals that they elected on the challenges in the community, and also look at the progress that has been made in the area by government,” she said.

Friday’s imbizo is expected to get underway at 10am. Follow SAnews on Twitter @SAgovnews and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/sanewsgovza/ for live updates on proceedings.

More work to be done

The Sedibeng District Municipality is home to the Emfuleni, Midvaal and Lesedi local municipalities and faces one of the highest unemployment rates in Gauteng, high poverty levels, service delivery and infrastructure challenges.

High unemployment was mainly borne out of the de-industrialisation of the area, following the decline of the steel, mining and manufacturing industries.

However, various government-led interventions – including the Vaal River Special Economic Zone (SEZ), which is expected to create at least 170 000 jobs – are underway to add sustainable economic growth to the area and create quality jobs.

At the Sedibeng Investment Conference held last year, local investors made commitments and pledges worth some R40 billion to the Vaal River SEZ and its operationalisation is expected to reignite Sedibeng’s industrialisation.

To address service delivery challenges, at least R700 million has been dedicated to rehabilitating the Vaal Sewer System and funding is being sourced to upgrade bulk infrastructure, electricity, roads, water and sewerage.

Mavimbela said the DDM approach now adopted in the area will work to ensure that those service delivery plans are implemented more rapidly, efficiently and that the people’s needs are met.

“The District Development Model is a platform that has been set by the Presidency to unblock the blockages that are related to service delivery in municipalities. It looks at a district municipality as a whole… [in order to develop] an overall approach to unblock service delivery in those areas.

“Before the DDM approach is undertaken in a district, what happens is that there is an assessment of the area… [to establish] the key challenges. [On the day of the imbizo], the Ministers relevant to these challenges will be there so that they hear with their own ears what the challenges are in the area and also have an opportunity to engage with them,” she said.

Making progress, addressing challenges

This year, President Ramaphosa has conducted at least three other DDM izimbizo. Mavimbela told SAnews that feedback from those areas indicates that the DDM approach is yielding results and improving the lives of the people in those areas.

“We’ve had izimbizo in Mafikeng (North West province), Mangaung (Free State province) and the last one in Carolina (Mpumalanga province). The reports that have come after those izimbizo demonstrate the accelerated nature of government in wanting to fix the problem areas, which were perhaps not attended to by the local municipality,” she said.

Source: South African Government News Agency