Pretoria - The public participation programmes which President Jacob Zuma and his Cabinet have been undertaking are a way of monitoring how government service delivery impacts on individuals and communities, says Minister in the Presidency Responsible for Performance Monitoring and Evaluation Collins Chabane.
The visits, according to Chabane, will help government monitor how and where it was failing, was slow or making progress.
In recent weeks, Zuma and his team have visited various communities to get first-hand experience of people's frustrations.
Yesterday saw the President conducting a monitoring and evaluation visit of Gauteng's public transport susytem. He used public transport to attend a community meeting in Dlamini, Soweto.
The President and his delegation boarded the Metro Rail train from Pretoria to Rhodesfield Station where he took the Gautrain to Park Station in Johannesburg. They then proceeded to Wanderers Taxi Rank before boarding a Rea Vaya bus to Dlamini.
Chabane told a post-Cabinet briefing on Friday, that the launch of the last phase of the Gautrain and its integration with the Rea Vaya Bus in Johannesburg represented one aspect of government's integrated public transport system that will be seen by the President.
Another visit was the four millionth household electrification connection in the Eastern Cape's Mnquma Municipality. It was symbolically switched on by Minister of Public Enterprises, Malusi Gigaba, in Cerhu.
This event, according to Chabane, was a key milestone on the way to universal access to electricity and highlighted the progress made since 1994.
"Government and Eskom have played an integral role in ensuring that South African households have access to essential and basic services. The achievements to date provide further motivation for realising our universal access targets," said Chabane.
Another recent visit was to Ngobi area, which falls under the Moretele Local Municipality in the North West province, were government monitored service delivery in the area, particularly water access.
