South Africa: District Development Model (DDM) of Cyril Ramaphosa is beginning to bear the much needed fruit for communities in the Free State.
Since it’s inception by President Cyril Ramaphosa in 2019, DDM has sought to coordinate and integrate the work of the three spheres of government, this in an effort to derive maximum output from government service delivery programmes.
The President in the 2019 Presidency Budget Speech identified the pattern of operating in silos as a challenge which led to lack of coherence in planning and implementation thus making monitoring and oversight of government’s programme difficult.
The consequence thereof has been non-optimal delivery of services and diminished impact on the triple challenges of poverty, inequality and employment.
Over a couple of months, the Mangaung Metropolitan Municipality’s woes, particularly the state of uncleanness which many have associated with large scale disinvestment, has not gone unnoticed to government at both provincial and national tiers.
This meant a conversation and strategies to improve the state of affairs in the Metro was of paramount importance. Following engagements between the inter-dependent spheres, a resolution was taken for the higher spheres to intervene.
The initiative has led to the employment of over two thousand one hundred (2100) people through the Expanded Public Works Programme to clean and maintain the various towns in the Metro.
In collaboration with the department of Community Safety, Roads and Transport and Mangaung Metro, the Department of Environmental Affairs has made available a whopping two hundred million rands (R200 Million) for the cleaning of the metro through its cleaning and greening programme.
The cleaning programme pays a R2700 stipend to the two thousand participants.
On 17 November 2023, Deputy Minister for Environmental Affairs, Maggie Satyu, Deputy Minister in the Presidency responsible for Monitoring and Evaluation, Pinky Kekana, MEC for Community Safety, Roads, and Transport, MaQueen Letsoha-Mathae and MMM Mayor, Councillor Gregory Nthatisi led a cleaning campaign at the South-Park Cemetery in Bloemfontein.
Here the over two thousand, one hundred participants converged to clean the gravesite and the surrounding areas around the cemetery.
This area had become a major crime hot-spot and a safe heaven for criminals who robbed, abused and even killed those who had come to visit the area. The cleaning of the area will go a long way in nullifying the cohort who sought to establish themselves as a thorn to the community of Bloemfontein.