Hon Speaker, all spheres of government must observe and adhere to the principles of co-operative government, as depicted in Chapter 3 of the Constitution. It is an intergovernmental obligation across national, provincial and local government.
Provinces and local government have to exercise their authority within a framework and direction set and supervised by national government. As early as 1998, the Presidential Review Commission had reported on the challenges of co-ordination within and between the different spheres, which created incapacity with regard to implementing programmes and services.
An extensive period of consultation was undertaken to inform the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act promulgated in 2005. Last year, government began working on a White Paper on Co-operative Governance, which is currently a draft Green Paper. It is due for submission for comments by February 2011.
The purpose of this policy paper is to strengthen key elements of the system. These include some reforms in the exercise of powers and functions across government in order to clarify and simplify the executive obligations of each sphere. Closely related to this is a process of reviewing the intergovernmental planning system.
A third and critical element is the strengthening of the supervision and intervention capacities of national and provincial government. This is in order to provide for timely interventions when municipalities are in distress. In this way, appropriate action may be taken before a situation escalates and impacts negatively on communities.
Finally, our outcomes approach to governance is fundamentally co-operative in its conception and practice across government. Each of the 12 delivery agreements that have been signed depends on the co-operation of a range of partners in the three spheres - Ministers, MECs and mayors.
I am honoured to join the NCOP, this Friday, when it meets at the Charles Mopedi Stadium in Maluti-A-Phofung Local Municipality in the Free State province. We will be celebrating co-operative governance in practice, urging all spheres of government to work together to speed up the delivery of services. Thank you. [Applause.]