Madam Chairperson, hon members I very much appreciate the honour of introducing to the House this important Bill, the Local Government: Municipal Systems Bill. Together with the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Bill, this Bill was recently adopted by the National Assembly. Should it receive the concurrence of the NCOP, then we shall firmly get on to the road to modernising the way our local communities are governed.
The two Bills I have referred to seek to shape the new local government dispensation and to influence its efficacy. The process of modernising local government itself predates the formal adoption of our country's Constitution. The step we are taking today concludes the trajectory of local government reforms which has been unfolding under the aegis of the Local Government Transition Act.
More importantly, it also consolidates the role of local government as a full partner in the governance and transformation of the country. Since its promulgation, the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act has provided us with the legislative base for democratising the structure of government and the substance of local democracy. As we have said before, successive colonial and apartheid regimes introduced systems of local government which marginalised urban black communities as well as traditional rural communities. Our people in these communities have for many years felt the downdraught of this exclusion. The persisting conditions of underdevelopment in these black areas speak to the urgency with which we must be seen to be moving forward towards establishing new municipal entities. The establishment of new municipal entities, which will come by way of elections, will put to an end the decades-old marginalisation of black people.
This is the context within which we should look at the recently concluded demarcation of municipal boundaries. Whereas traditional rural communities were condemned to remain islands of poverty with no meaningful prospects of development, the demarcation process allows them to form part of larger municipalities and to more effectively achieve the economies of scale. Only in this way can the population densities be better managed and the need for services such as markets and transport nodes be adequately addressed.
When traditional leaders indicated to the Government that they were not happy with some of the proposed boundaries which affect areas under their jurisdiction, President Mbeki asked the Municipal Demarcation Board to once more apply its mind to the concerns of traditional leaders. I wish to take this opportunity to express my heartfelt thanks both to the Municipal Demarcation Board and to individual traditional leaders who co-operated in order to find an amicable way of resolving this matter. In the process the board changed the outer boundaries of more than 20 municipalities to ensure that traditional leaders' areas are aligned and fall within a single jurisdiction. Thanks to this co-operation, the issue of the redemarcation of municipal boundaries before the forthcoming elections has been brought to a close.
The marginalisation we talk about had a political as well as a socioeconomic base. Given this, it is inevitable that there will be a battle between new and old visions of local government. The Local Government: Municipal Systems Bill seeks to provide a framework for bringing the citizens into an active relationship with government. If we are to succeed in re-engaging the public, then we must understand the extent to which they were excluded and alienated. We must also understand the methods and mechanisms which were used to achieve that exclusion and alienation. When we reflect on this history of the institution in governance, we cannot ignore the fact that some amongst our traditional leaders took positions which merited unpopularity. We point this out not as a basis to deny them a role in the continuing democratisation of our country, but with a view to inviting them to co-operate with the project of transforming our country.
Government, as hon members know, has said time without number that our disposition is towards enhancing the role of the institution of traditional leadership in matters of governance. We have created the National House of Traditional Leaders and provincial houses of traditional leaders, and levels of traditional leaders' representation in structures of local government have been increased. All these steps bear testimony to our intention to enhance the status of the institution of traditional leadership, a status denied them by successive colonial and apartheid regimes.
The National Assembly, as well as the NCOP, have also passed legislation which empowers provinces to fashion their own policies in ways which facilitate co-operation between local government and the institution of traditional leadership. This much was pointed out both in eyeball-to- eyeball discussions with traditional leaders and in the President's letter to traditional leaders. It bears emphasising that whilst some of these matters can be discussed and resolved between Government and the traditional leaders, others are matters which do not lend themselves to being dealt with by way of executive discretion. The legislative bodies of our country will have to be given the opportunity to pronounce themselves on some of these issues.
It will therefore be understood why Government is unfolding a White Paper process and a legislative process which go to the heart of this question of the role, powers and functions of traditional leaders. In this regard we put forward a timeframe which is eminently reasonable, given the immensity of the task involved in rationalising more than 1 500 pieces of old-order legislation which bear on the institution of traditional leaders. Looking at it this way, it ought to be easy for anyone who cares to listen to understand that it would be wrong to insist on making full and final resolution of these matters a condition for holding the forthcoming local government elections.
Even as we agreed to postpone the announcement of the election date, we did emphasise that the fact that we were postponing the announcement of the election date should not be read to mean that we were unmindful of the urgency involved in the matter. From the point of view of Government, we have done everything we need to do in order to create the necessary conditions for the holding of the elections. The Municipal Demarcation Board and the Independent Electoral Commission have also done a commendable job in this regard.
The elections themselves represent a moment of hope which our people have fought for. Nobody has the right to postpone that moment of hope. We concur with the overwhelming call for the need to urgently proclaim the date of the elections, and we promise to do so soon enough. As a matter of fact, we are ready to announce the election date this week. The technical committee established by Government and traditional leaders must understand that it does not have the luxury of time. They must put us in a position to announce this election date and announce it this week, because that is our intention. [Applause.]