South Africa and Lesotho have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation in the field of decentralisation and local government.

The MoU was on Wednesday signed by Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Minister, Dr Minister Dlamini Zuma, and her counterpart, Moshe Leoma, during a ceremony in Pretoria.

The MoU will expand cooperation in the areas of:

• fiscal decentralisation,

• integrated development planning,

• development of local government and governance institutions and structures,

• human resource development, and

• exchange programmes by councils/municipalities.

Addressing the event, Minister Dlamini Zuma said the two nations were entering into the agreement in the hope that they will consolidate actions to build non-sexist and inclusive societies.

“Building such societies in our nations will go a long way in realising the objectives we set for ourselves in agenda 2063 for the Africa we want.”

She said: “The decentralisation agreement will also contribute to ensuring an integrated prosperous and peaceful Africa driven by its own citizens. The decentralisation agreement will also add a fresh impetus to the other areas of cooperation our governments have entered into.”

These, she said, span a wide range of areas, from trade and investment, security and energy, transport, agriculture, tourism, water as well as the environment.

"The signing of the MOU is welcome, particularly as we last year ratified the African Charter on the values and principles of decentralisation of local governments and local development. The charter will also be able to contribute to the gearing of all spheres government and society towards decentralisation, localised financing and spatial referencing," she said.

For its part, the Minister said the South African government was implementing the District Development Model, which seeks to integrate programs and budgets of all spheres of government.

This will ultimately ensure that citizens experience development where they live. "Thus, this will ensure that outward migration is a result of choice and not as a result of desperation.”

To achieve this, she said the two governments should do all in their power to address the challenges faced by the local sphere of governance, of which the institutions of traditional leadership are an important part.

"Our cooperation will enhance these institutions whilst we are facilitating a more inclusive, accountable and transparent form of governance. These key agreements will also assist in addressing key challenges faced by our municipalities. These include the lack of technical skills such as those directed at planning and financing," she said.

Disaster management

The two Ministers also oversaw the signing of a technical MoU on disaster management. This MoU sets out a framework for a collaborative arrangement, which includes joint actions towards preventing and mitigating risks related to disasters. It was signed by the Acting Head of the National Disaster Management Centre in South Africa and the Head of the Disaster Management Authority of Lesotho.

The MoU has a special framework for collaborative arrangements between the two entities. These include joint actions towards preventing and mitigating risks related to disasters.

"This agreement could not have come at a better time since we've had to endure disasters, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, droughts and floods which have negatively impacted on both nations. This agreement will therefore contribute to the construction of our economies whilst we are trying to build back better.

"So we welcome the signing of the MoU on disaster as it will enable both countries to cooperate in carrying out their respective responsibilities in disaster prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response and recovery operations in the event of natural, man-made or technical disasters," she said.

The MoU is also expected to strengthen research and capacity building programs.

Working together, both countries should be able to increase efficiency and extend the impact of individual and joint activities in the areas of disaster reduction and management.

"As South Africa, we are busy with the 21 year review of local government and we hope that we will be able to establish what has worked well... and what hasn't so that we can strengthen those areas that have worked well and maybe change those that have not.

Leoma said the signing of the documents had long been coming.

He said these were in line with the objectives of the Joint Bilateral Commission of Cooperation (JBCC) between the two countries.

He said: "Similarly, we have long-standing relations with the Republic in the area of disaster risk reduction and the emergency preparedness response.

The JBCC seeks to strengthen the two nations' strategic partnership and to co-foster good governance, which, he said, was the basis for stability and economic growth.

"The Ministry of local government and Chieftainship engaged with CoGTA since then and agreed to formalise the relations through an MoU, not only focusing on issues pertaining to local government structures, but even extend into model for a physical decentralisation framework," he said.

In the area of disaster management, the same was being perused.

"While signing of this MoU marks the beginning of formal collaboration between us, a lot has been achieved. It can be seen already in the existing joined bilateral committee or search and rescue by the two countries. However, more is still to be achieved," he said.

Source: South African Government News Agency