President Cyril Ramaphosa is expected to lead a Presidential District Development Model (DDM) Imbizo in Ekurhuleni in Gauteng later this month.

This is according to Presidential Spokesperson Vincent Magwenya who was briefing the media on Wednesday.

The Presidential Imbizo will be the first to be held by the seventh administration. It is scheduled for Friday, 23 August.

‘The DDM was established to improve coordination and alignment between the different spheres of government. This is an important initiative to improve planning, budgeting and implementation at a local level by bringing all spheres, departments and stakeholders together, towards uplifting our communities.

‘You will recall that the planned District Development Model (DDM) oversight visit during April 2024 to the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality, had to be postponed due to challenges faced by the municipality at the time. The President is therefore pleased that the oversight visit to the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality
will take place,’ he said.

The President is expected to be accompanied by all members of the National Executive who would already be on the ground leading up to the visit.

A success story

During the media briefing, Magwenya batted away notions that the DDM Izimbizo have not delivered – pointing out that notable successes have been recorded in municipalities like Sedibeng in Gauteng where an imbizo was held in 2022.

This after criticism about the Presidential Izimbizo came to the fore this week.

‘[The] Presidential Imbizo contributed to a clinic becoming fully operational. The clinic, which was built before the COVID-19 lockdown, had become a white elephant and the community in Zone 17, Sebokeng had to travel distances for basic medical care.

‘Through the Presidential imbizo in [August] 2022, an inter-governmental task team comprising of national, provincial, local government and Eskom, identified the gaps for the clinic to become operational. The big issue was that it was not connected to the grid and t
hat there was a stand-off between the different spheres of government about costs.

‘The Presidential Izimbizo unlocked the bottlenecks. Eskom and the various government departments procured the transformer and finances to connect the clinic to the grid. Today, the community is benefiting,’ Magwenya highlighted.

He added that the seventh administration will engage citizens.

‘This seventh administration will continue to engage citizens through the Presidential Imbizo and the second round of the Presidential Izimbizo starts later this month at the Tsakane Stadium in the Ekurhuleni Metro and many more will follow over the next five years,’ he said.

Source: South African Government News Agency