Executive Mayor

EXECUTIVE MAYOR’S FOREWORD

Realising the objective of developmental local government is a challenging task for municipalities. Integrated Development Planning is a key instrument which focuses on local issues rather than being a sector-or development dimension-driven approach. The notion of integration, central to integrated development planning, suggests that both sectors and dimensions need to be approached not in and for themselves.

Alternatively, the key consideration in the integrated development planning process that drives decision-making is the priority issues that are identified and defined by every citizen. These priority issues are derived from a process of analysing the existing local situation and focusing on the problems facing the communities living in the municipal area, as well as the municipality’s development potentials.

From this range of problems and potentials, the priority issues are extracted and become the focus for planning. The municipality simply does not have enough resources to address all issues identified by all members of the community. In terms of this issue-driven approach, dimensions are considered as crosscutting concerns or principles throughout the planning process-they underlie the very concept of development.

Sectors, on the other hand, should be considered where they are relevant to the local priority issues and in relation to one another rather than in isolation. Developmental local government should address the crosscutting dimensions of development throughout the planning process as these dimensions are aspects of all development and cannot be ignored in any local planning process if it is to be sustainable and developmental in nature.

Care needs to be taken to ensure that the dimensions are appropriately dealt with throughout the planning process that they are mainstreamed, and that guidelines, principles and strategies relating to dimensions are considered and used to guide and inform the municipality. Although specific sector requirements were met during the planning process, sector planning only featured in the Integrated Development Planning Process where it was part of the municipality’s priorities identified in the Integrated Development Planning Process.

A key concern among role-players in the Integrated Development Planning Process is how to achieve alignment between the different development sectors to support municipal development. For municipal planning and delivery to be integrated, vertical and horizontal alignment needs to take place between and within the spheres of government.

Secondly, since the latest municipal demarcation process, establishes wall-to-wall municipal across the country, the provincial and national sector departments implement their programmes within the municipal area. This means that local priorities need to form the basis for alignment between governmental sectors and spheres.Local development is multi-dimensional, underpinned by development dimensions relevant to the planning and delivery processes.

“Dimensions” are simply aspects of development including social, economic, institutional and environmental aspects. In addition to these, in Phumelela, there is also certain issues that cut across and influence all development processes, such as HIV/AIDS, migration and population issues.

These crosscutting issues are part and parcel of the development dimensions affecting local development. It is also important not to confuse the concept of crosscutting issues with priority issues: the latter are the specific local issues the municipality will identify in the local area that need to be addressed in the planning process.

To illustrate the concept of dimensions and crosscutting issues, consider for instance the notion of unemployment in the municipal area. Unemployment has many development facets and impacts; it affects household income and poverty levels, rates and service payment, private investment in housing and commercial activities.
Similarly, the concept of dimensions and crosscutting issues can also be considered at the strategy formulation and project design level.

Employment generation strategies would need to consider a range of development dimensions and sectors. These may include environmental impact, fiscal sustainability for the municipality, gender issues in terms of who should be employed in different projects and sector programmes promoting employment generation.
It is also important to consider the impact of the development dimensions on all sector issues. For example, settlement patters in a municipal area may be spatially fragmented and segregated. This spatial reality will have an influence on sectors such as transport, the cost of providing municipal services and the possibility of identifying specific projects to address the spatial fragmentation.

An awareness of the following dimensions and crosscutting issues have formed the basis on which the integrated development planning process for the 2022/2023 was undertaken, as they have affected all the development processes in the context of integrated development planning. These are:

• Demographics
• Infrastructure
• Development
• Natural Environment;
• Spatial Dimension;
• Economic Dimension;
• Institutional Dimension;
• Public Safety and Security;
• Health;
• Education;
• Social Security.

Many stakeholders including national and provincial departments of local government have been involved in the Integrated Development Planning process for the 2022/2023 financial. I am therefore confident that, as a result, this Integrated Development Plan 2022/2023 will be useful in providing sustainable services to our communities and a source of inspiration for all of you who were involved in the integrated development planning process in our endeavour to make the Integrated Development Plan a tool to address the social and economic needs of our communities more effectively. This is indeed the year in which we “Building the relationships of trust within the municipal environment-the road toward sustainable basic services provision”