Premier Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane has welcomed the ninth District Development Model (DDM) Presidential Imbizo to be held in Tsomo, Chris Hani District Municipality in the Eastern Cape.
Planned for Friday, 11 August, the engagement will see President Cyril Ramaphosa, together with Ministers, Members of the Executive Council (MECs), Executive Mayors, and councillors from various municipalities, coming together to engage, listen and provide responses in real time to issues affecting communities.
The Presidential Imbizo creates a platform for social partners, including government, traditional leaders, organs of civil society, labour, women, youth, persons with disabilities, business, and communities an opportunity to collectively engage in keeping with the DDM principle of an – All of Society and government approach, to enhance integrated service delivery and create jobs.
Mabuyane has called upon the people of Intsika Yethu Local Municipality to come out in their numbers to engage with the President and raise their concerns.
Mabuyane said the engagement of communities is a critical aspect of our democracy, as it ensures that the principals are inclusive and accessible to citizens.
“This is an opportunity for communities and citizens to add their voices and enrich the work of the President. Through this commitment and partnerships guided by the DDM, communities will surely see enhanced integrated service delivery,” Mabuyane said on Thursday.
The Premier said the provincial government will use the imbizo to continue advocating for the service delivery needs of the people. This includes the acceleration of the government’s response in areas that were affected by disasters, improvements on water reticulation projects, interventions on the management of crime, as well as the accelerated implementation of all the catalytic projects across the province.
“Engagements between the two spheres of government have yielded positive results with massive investment received to improve some of the provincial infrastructure, amongst others the resolution on the funding deadlock for the construction of the R8 billion Umzimvubu Dam and an additional R6.33 billion has been allocated to municipalities in the province through various water infrastructure grants.
“The Eastern Cape provincial government has since the launch of the DDM developed and submitted at least eight DDM One Plans designed to unlock massive growth and socio-economic development across the province,” Mabuyane said. – SAnews.gov.za
