Cape Town - Newly elected municipal office bearers should waste no time and hit the ground running when they assume their duties following Wednesday’s local government elections, said Moipone Molotsi on Monday.
She is the director at the centre for small business development at the University of Johannesburg.
“If there’s one sphere of government where the needs of small businesses could be addressed immediately, it’s at local government level,” she said.
“Something drastic needs to happen with small business development, particularly in townships where these enterprises often don’t have access to infrastructure and operational space. Local government can rectify this.”
Molotsi urged newly elected officials to practice continuity, instead of merely implementing new ideas and plans.
“Every time new officials are elected, there are new programmes that need to be implemented. But this takes time and it’s better that there’s continuity of existing programmes."
On Wednesday, South Africans will go to the polls to elect councillors who will be responsible for governing their municipalities for the next five years.
All eyes will be on South Africa’s metros Tshwane and Nelson Mandela Bay to see if the ANC will manage to cling to power. It is widely expected that coalition governments in these two municipalities would need to be formed should neither the ANC nor the DA manage to achieve an outright majority.
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