IDP and Budget Process Plan 2025/2026
The mandatory statutory requirement contained in the Municipal Systems Act (Act 32 of 2000), the Municipal Finance Management Act (Act 56 of 2003) and related regulations, requires each municipal council to adopt a written process to guide the planning, drafting, adoption, and review of its Integrated Development Plan within a specified period following the start of its elected term (IDP). As a result, municipal councils are required to evaluate their IDP yearly under section 34 of the Municipal Systems Act (Act 32 of 2000). Consequently, the re-engineering of the development strategies and targets contained in the Integrated Development Plan should be guided by the IDP and Budget Process Plan.
An affirmative move has been witnessed in most of all areas contained in the IDP Assessment template by Provincial department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in collaboration with other departments . This legally compliant template was designed by the department to guide and standardise the assessment of municipal Integrated Development Plans by providing guidelines for the crafting, designing and improving IDPs. The city has done exceptionally well in this barometer.
Legislatively, a planning dialogue between a municipality and the community, other spheres of government and municipal entities remains a fundamental process towards developmental local government. The White Paper on Local Government (1998) refers to developmental local government as a local government which centres on working together with its communities to find sustainable ways to meet their needs and improve their quality of lives. Section 24 of the Municipal Systems Act, 2000 (Act 32 of 2000) provides that the planning undertaken by a municipality must be aligned with, and complement the development plans of the other organs of state’. This is to enable the implementation of cooperative governance to enhance municipal planning.