Ordinary South Africans must be the first beneficiaries of what the constitution dictates on service delivery. That’s the view of former Public Protector Lawrence Mushwana.
He was speaking to thousands of locals in Bushbuckridge, Mpumalanga on Wednesday.
The provincial government took the legislature to the people in a bid to allow them space to voice out their dissatisfaction with government’s programs around their area.
The Mpumalanga provincial government has vowed to continue to take the legislature to the people, in order to intensify service delivery. The area is no stranger to violent service delivery protests. However, locals say they are glad to see government officials as they are clueless about how the South African constitution protects them.
Deputy speaker of the Mpumalanga legislature, Violet Siwela says initiatives like this seek to allow residents to voice out their concerns about the work done by government thus far.
“We always are glad to hear our people express their views on what we are doing as the provincial government, we invited all the stakeholders including local leaders in order to communicate with them on some of the projects we embark on.”
Mushwana says as much as he is in agreement with the Mpumalanga legislature initiative, national government needs to make sure that it follows suit so that ordinary citizens are at the centre of programs aimed to improve service delivery.
“We need to view how we do things for our people – get to assess our role thus far as a democratic country – because the last thing we need to leave the locals and ordinary citizens behind when we implement government programs,” he said.
