Municipality A has a population of approximately 90 000 with more or less 18000 households. Approximately 69% of the population resides in the local township area. Just over half of the Municipality A's population is female. The municipality shows a significant child dependency, with approximately 25 percent of the population below 15 years of age. More than half of the population is below 20 years of age. 

 Municipality A is comparatively poor municipality in which 80 percent of the population, which is 94 percent African, is living in poverty. The economy is driven by the community services, trade and services, and agricultural sectors. Household income in Municipality A is generally low, with the majority of households relying on welfare and pension grants. 

 Further, the municipality faces serious infrastructure and service backlogs as well as pending land claims, hampering economic development in the area. The failure to deliver services has led to protest, often violent, since the middle 2020. The extent of public anger is not surprising given the state of service delivery. Included in the list of grievances is poor refuse removal, potholes on municipal roads, unreliable electricity supply and "improper" allocation of RDP housing to residents.

 In the last week, a service delivery protest broke out, there was an unfortunate situation where a protest resulted in fatalities. At least 5 people died and a handful were injured when they clashed with the police during the violent protest. 

 

You will be attending funeral of the two people that died during the service delivery protest

 

Question

Task: Prepare a speech to be read on behalf of the municipality

 

Tips:

Ensure that you apply good communication skills including empathy

Ensure that you include commitment of the municipality in improving service delivery