The Media and Communication Section has a key role to play in improving service delivery,
both in communicating with members of the public who receive services, as well as in
communicating with those who deliver these services – municipal employees. Therefore,
the aim of this section is to provide the Municipality with a comprehensive communication
and marketing system to facilitate the participation of all officials and members of the community
in good governance, economic development and nation-building through sound communication
interventions, stakeholder engagement and marketing strategies.

Effective communication plays a key role in the renewed drive around the Batho Pele campaign
to address perceptions of bureaucratic inertia and a perceived lack of responsiveness by the
public service, in essence placing emphasis on the content of municipal programmes and how
they can be accessed. In order to achieve this, the aim must be to complement municipal
communication with a campaign of internal communication to inform and mobilise municipal
employees to fully play their part as champions of good governance and service delivery.

Strategic Objectives

The overarching objective of the Communications Section is to enhance and promote the
role of the Municipality and its operations in its area of jurisdiction in ways that contribute
to the process of deepening democracy and taking the Municipality onto a higher growth
and development path. Through an integrated approach, the Communication Department
will amplify stakeholder engagement in setting the strategic priorities of the Integrated
Development Plan (IDP). This objective will be achieved by having the following elements
in the department’s strategic approach:

• promote awareness of the economic opportunities within the Municipality and how
  to access them; 
• improve the culture of service delivery in the public service (also includes rooting
  out any corruption and poor performance). This entails communication on the
  anti-corruption campaigns, as well as improved communication on service
  excellence awards, performance management systems and other internal policies. 
• build and promote public partnerships through public participation on service delivery
  and implementation of municipal programmes; and 
• communicate policies and information.