lesbians remains a challenge. The new ministry dedicated to this section of the population is
being strengthened in order to address the persistent challenges.
During the reporting period, the Ministry of Rural Development and Land Reform has
reviewed and developed a number of legislation to ensure that land contributes to
sustainability of rural livelihoods. This is discussed elaborately in the theme on socioeconomic development.
During the reporting period, the Ministry of Economic Development crafted strategies and
established independent bodies to guide, monitor and oversee infrastructure development.
The establishment of the Presidential Infrastructure Commission as well as Infrastructure
and Economic Development projects place South Africa in pole position for leading regional
and continental integration.
The Ministry of Military Veterans, also registered progress during the reporting period as it
developed the Military Veterans' legislation which provides for the governance of affairs of
the military veterans in terms of democratic principles of the State.
In 2009, the Ministry of Corporative Governance and Traditional Affairs launched Operation
Clean Audit 2014 to strengthen capacity and accountability of the municipal managers and
to improve the municipal audit performance. The Local Government Turn Around Strategy
(LGTAS) was also developed to improve service delivery initiatives at local government
level. The implementation of the strategy requires multiple stakeholder participation,
including the private sector, State Owned Enterprises (SOEs), NGO's and Community
Based Organisations (CBOs). Furthermore, the Ministry also played a significant role in
preparation for the 2011 Local Government elections held in 278 municipalities.
During the reporting period, the Ministry also developed and reviewed a number of
legislations to ensure effective cooperation across spheres of government so as to
significantly improve service delivery and development. These include:
Green Paper on Cooperative Governance;
Draft White Paper on Local Government;
Monitoring, Support and Intervention Bill whose purpose is to deal with section 100 of
Constitution which relates to national interventions in the provinces and section 139
of the Constitution which relates to provincial interventions in the municipalities; and
The Traditional Affairs Bill which is aimed at ensuring an integrated approach in
dealing with matters relating to the traditional affairs.
To strengthen the public service, government, through the Ministry of Public Service and
Administration is moving towards the establishment of the Single Public Service Bill which
aims at addressing the challenge of incompatible norms and standards across spheres of
government. This challenge has also been identified in the NDP Diagnostic report. The
objective is to have the machinery of state across the three spheres of government
strategically aligned and harmonized to ensure necessary complementarities in order to fulfil
the goals of the developmental state and in particular, the pressing and urgent service
delivery needs. The Single Public Service would also promote mobility of staff between the
spheres of government thereby facilitating optimal deployment of skills.
3.1.6
Strengthening the institution of traditional leadership
45