Dlodo said this when Ministers in the Governance, State Capacity and Institutional Development (GSCID) cluster briefed the media to outline progress made in areas that the President mentioned in the State of the Nation Address.

“Work is afoot to cautiously withdraw the National State of Disaster in line with our risk adjusted strategy.

“We cannot let our guard down yet,. We need to improve our vaccination uptake to attain population immunity and continue to observe none-pharmaceutical health protocols,” she said on Monday.

The Minister said as the President said during the State of the Nation Address, the country is now in the phase of reconstruction and recovery following the devasting impact of the Coronavirus pandemic.

“The Disaster Management Act has been an essential instrument towards our successful management of the novel COVID-19 pandemic.

“The declaration of the national state of disaster allowed the country to coordinate an integrated response plan to protect lives and mitigate the socioeconomic impact of the virus.”

‘One Plans’ to accelerate infrastructure investment, service delivery

Dlodlo said government’s District Development Model (DDM) is an all of government and society approach that gives practical meaning to the principles of Cooperative Governance by enabling integrated and responsive planning, implementation, and budgeting.

She said to this end, 49 ‘One Plans’ have been finalised and three (3) are at an advanced stage of conclusion.

These ‘One Plans’, Dlodlo said, are currently undergoing a rigorous process of quality assurance by a multidisciplinary team of officials to ensure that programmes highlighted will accelerate infrastructure investment and service delivery throughout the country.

“We have made notable progress in firstly understanding the unique characteristics of each district through the profile and now this phase of institutionalisation reinforces the alignment of our plans to inform short, medium and long-range targets.

“As part of implementing the District Delivery Model and responding to the impact of COVID 19, Economic Recovery Plans have been developed in 46 districts and metropolitan municipalities and the Department is working with the remaining districts to finalise their recovery plans.

“These plans highlight key interventions that will be implemented mainly focusing on relieve measures for both informal and formal businesses through financial and non-financial interventions.”