DIGEST 2006 - Sabita

Sabita's Local Councillor Programme:
Improving service delivery
through appropriate road
maintenance
Mike Winfield
Director
Zebra Bituminous Surfacings cc
From 1997 to 1998 Sabita
ran an extremely
successful empowerment
programme for municipalities
known as the Local Councillor
Empowerment Programme
(LCEP). The objective of this
initiative was to expose newly
elected councillors to the
importance of roads
for improving
service delivery, and
their role in the
management and
implementa- tion of
road provision.
Over a two-year period
close to 100
workshops were
conducted in the
KwaZulu-Natal,
Western Cape and
Gauteng provinces,
with just over 1000
councillors and officials
participating.
These workshops,
conducted shortly after
the elections of 1994,
Sabita’s LCEP booklet
on the need to
maintain roads
provided the first opportunity for
many of the local councillors to be
involved in the decision making
process associated with the
allocation of budgets and the
management of infrastructure
within a local authority. Much of
the success of the workshops was
the result of the skilled facilitation
provided by Sabita
members, and the
emphasis on the
importance of roads in
service delivery.
Members in turn were
also sensitised to the
needs of the
communities in which
they operated, enabling
them to optimise their
spectrum of services
and products
accordingly.
Public awareness
campaign
In 2002 the format for
the LCEP was changed
from that of facilitation
based workshops to a
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