Durban — A highly respected former eThekwini Municipal manager Mike Sutcliffe will share his local government experience and expertise at the first municipal strategy conference in Durban on Thursday.
The two-day event which is the first of its kind has been organised by Nsikayezwe Management Consultants. In a statement issued by the host company it said Sutcliffe will be among the top local government experts that will share their expertise at the conference.
The host company said the conference will equip municipalities with proper tools and mechanisms to ensure stable and consistent service delivery. The initiative was established after seeing how municipalities continued to face various challenges in South Africa in relation to service delivery.
“This is history in the making. It is a new initiative, it is going to be the first time that something of this nature will culminate. The company deals with matters of corporate governance, strategy and innovation. We have analysed the issues facing local government which mainly includes poor state of planning and financial instability. Most government entities and municipalities are struggling with strategic planning and as a result they are not performing at their optimal level,” read the statement.
Sutcliffe is a highly rated local government expert whom the government consults with to assist municipalities with governance issues.
He was part of the Section 154 team that was set up to assist eThekwini Municipality which is besieged by administrative problems.
Some of the speakers on the panel include Nsikayezwe Sithole – the CEO of Nsikayezwe Management Consultants; Professor Siphamandla Zondi from the University of Johannesburg; Professor Andre Roux from the University of Stellenbosch Business School; Dr T Nzimakwe from the University of KwaZulu Natal; Dr Bandile Mkhize who is the former CEO of Ezemvelo KZN WildLife; Dr Zandile Dlamini – ICT specialist, Kisa Dlamini from KZN Cogta and Sifiso Sibisi an ICT expert.
Sithole said the conference will have nine sessions which will cover challenges of global and South African economics and its impact on local government strategic planning understanding the role of foreign policies in the strategic planning of a municipality, the role of traditional leadership in a strategic planning of a municipality, a case study of rural-based municipalities and their challenges with strategic planning and its implementation, proposed strategic options – towards a service delivery model for municipalities that deals with the legacy of the past local government system, the role of ICT in the strategy of a municipality, strategy principles and strategy techniques and the future of municipal strategy in South Africa.
“The purpose of this programme is to promote pro-active decision making rather than re-action decision making, to equip local government officials about principles of strategic planning, to study, understand and apply strategic planning techniques and explore strategic and innovative ways of accelerating service delivery and our intention is to stage this conference annually. Such a programme has never existed before, and this is going to be a game changer,” Sithole concluded.
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