The 2024 national and provincial elections may have been a watershed moment for South Africans but how this translates into service delivery at a municipal level is still unclear. This is why the work of OUTA’s Local Government Unit is so important. 

OUTA’s Community Action Network (CAN), JoburgCAN, and LINK continue building resources and becoming the knowledge hub for communities across South Africa.

CAN’s project manager, Jonathan Erasmus, said democracy, oversight, and applying pressure where it is needed is a 365-day event.

“Democracy does not begin or end with an election. It plays out daily, and we need to keep this in mind with every engagement, protest, success, and failure. The resources hub we are developing is invaluable because it empowers the public to make better decisions,” he said. 

Meanwhile, JoburgCAN has steadily been growing its membership base as more community organisations join the OUTA-led initiative. 

“We would like to welcome Westcliff, our newest affiliate member. We are already involved with area clean-ups, beautification projects, and growing the residents’ association’s membership, and we encourage other members to participate in these efforts in their communities,” said JoburgCAN manager Julia Fish. 

LINK, our in-house service delivery mobile application, is also seeing new uptake across the country with municipalities in Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal expected to be onboarded onto the service soon.

LINK key accounts manager Norman de Villiers said the app is being slowly rolled out and, where it has community support, it is successful.

“In KwaZulu-Natal, a community organisation has been involved in the process of convincing the municipality to take up LINK. This kind of collaboration works, and we urge other communities to talk to their municipalities about similar initiatives,” he said.

Interested in what our Local Government Unit is doing? Have a look here: 

WaterCAN focuses on water matters, Community Action Network (CAN) aims to empower local communities to participate in municipal matters and JoburgCAN exists to organise and empower a network of community associations and businesses to ensure the responsible collection and use of rates and tax revenues, along with good service delivery by the City. The Link App gives users an easy, effective way to communicate directly with their municipality about any problems or service issues within their community.