On Thursday, 26 October 2023, Deputy Minister for the Public Service and Administration, Dr Chana Pilane-Majake, participated in the Capricorn District Development Model (DDM) Outreach in the Blouberg Municipality.
Led by the Premier of the Limpopo Provincial Government, Mr Chupu Stanley Mathabatha, hundreds of citizens and stakeholders from the four municipalities that make up the Capricorn District flocked to the Pirates Sports Grounds in Ga-Mmankgodi village to receive feedback and engage on the progress in implementing the catalytic projects initiated under the Capricorn DDM.
Flanked by Premier Mathabatha and Members of the Executive Council (MECs), Deputy Minister Dr Pilane-Majake, who spoke in her capacity as the National DDM Champion, said the success of the District Development Model depends on the quality of the public servants and senior managers who are charged with the implementation of the identified catalytic projects.
“The big plans [of the DDM] cannot be implemented without the critical role that senior managers play in their implementation,” Deputy Minister Dr Pilane-Majake said.
The Deputy Minister’s words of appreciation followed a comprehensive overview of the basket of projects undertaken since the launch of the Capricorn DDM in February 2020, which Cllr Mamedupi Teffo, Executive Mayor Capricorn District, presented.
Riding on the back of a growing provincial population and internal migration to the key economic hub of the Polokwane Municipality, the DDM projects range from those that seek to decentralise development to economically under-developed communities to the construction of water and sanitation infrastructure, which is particularly needed in the water scarce Blouberg municipal areas.
Within the Capricorn District Municipality, which incorporates the four municipalities of Polokwane, Blouberg, Lepelle-Nkumpi and Molemole, only 31.8% of the population has access to proper sanitation, reported Executive Mayor Capricorn District, Cllr Teffo. For this reason, the Seshego Water Treatment Works and the New Polokwane Waste Water Treatment Works are catalytic projects that are expected to change the district’s current water and sanitation status quo. Moreover, said the Executive Mayor, the district’s economy will benefit from several road construction and electrification projects that run into millions of rands and are at various completion stages.
Members of the community and stakeholders also had an opportunity to gauge the DDM progress reports against their own lived experiences, resulting in lively interchanges between themselves, the political representatives and the public servants.
“We know that most of the answers to your questions are not conclusive. However, this [DDM outreach] allows us to listen to each other and enable the community to come up with solutions to some of our challenges,” Deputy Minister Pilane-Majake said.
Likewise, Premier Mathabatha thanked the community for the feedback on the work that the district is undertaking, saying even the harshest criticism of the government’s current efforts “made us better people and leaders”. However, the Premier also pointed out that acknowledging the successes and transformation within communities is as important as pointing out their service delivery challenges.
