The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Transport and KwaNongoma Local Municipality have committed to work together to accelerate service delivery, especially the delivery of transport infrastructure projects.
This follows a meeting where Transport, Community Safety and Liaison MEC, Sipho Hlomuka, led a team of departmental officials to engage with the municipality in a bid to identify areas of possible partnership.
During a meeting on Monday, KwaNongoma Local Municipality Mayor, Mshangane Ndabandaba and Speaker Babongile Sithole shared the challenges facing the municipality and pledged to work with the provincial and national government in promoting service delivery.
The Department of Transport introduced a team of fleet and personnel that is deployed to assist in improving local roads under the three various traditional councils in the area.
The team deployed will be working in the area for a month, where they will rehabilitate roads, including D1857, D1858 and D1858, which are located in Mthwadlana, KwaNongoma.
Hlomuka said government is exploring a number of innovations to support struggling municipalities like KwaNongoma, where key projects will be prioritised.
He said the department is going to identify critical areas of intervention.
"We will assist the municipality to fulfil its constitutional and political mandate to deliver services to the people. The Department of Transport has started, and we commit to reviving road infrastructure in KwaNongoma," Hlomuka said.
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The MEC said the team will do local roads but will also look at critical capital projects.
"Government, at a provincial level, has agreed that all departments will improve their service delivery roll-out in Nongoma. This will also culminate in the Premier-led Operation Sukuma Sakhe, which is a provincial government integrated service delivery programme," Hlomuka said.
He said national departments have also committed to accelerate services to assist the municipality.
Ndabandaba commended the department's intervention, saying that with a budget of R39 billion from the Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG), the municipality is unable to cover all the wards within the local municipality.
"We welcome the involvement and partnership with the provincial government. This marks a new era for the people of KwaNongoma, and it is a start of more good things to come," Ndabandaba said.
Hlomuka also expressed concern with the level of political intolerance and political killings in the area, saying more work will be done on crime, including political violence.
