Rightwingers are blocking the setting up of new local structures in four provinces, reports Justin Pearce
WITH the transition to democratic local government battling to stay on schedule, conservatives are attempting to obstruct the process in at least four provinces.
White councillors and black chiefs have stalled the establishment of transitional structures in kwaZulu/Natal, the PWV, and the Eastern and Western Cape. Local government elections, to which these structures are crucial, have been set for October next year.
In Pietermaritzburg and in Cape Town, the transition has stumbled on the inclusion of peripheral towns within the boundaries of a future local government structure. In the case of Pietermaritzburg, a negotiations deadlock has forced arbitration.
In Cape Town, controversy over the inclusion of the Helderberg region in the proposed metropolitan area has delayed negotiations. The municipality of the Strand has objected to inclusion, and indications are that the metropole may now be constituted without the Strand in order to salvage the process.
On the Witwatersrand, delays in the establishment of transitional structures for six East and West Rand municipalities have drawn accusations from Premier Tokyo Sexwale’s office that ”conservative elements” in the statutory bodies represented on the Metropolitan Negotiating Forum are causing delays.
White ratepayers and councillors are refusing to take on debts of black local authorities with which the white councils are to merge.
In numerous smaller towns across the country, white councils are dragging their heels on integration with township management committees.
In Durban, negotiators battled to meet the November 30 deadline for the establishment of transitional structures, after kwaZulu/Natal MEC for local government Peter Miller attacked the proposed metropolitan council ”as a monster … with little power vested in the substructures”.
The ANC has accused him of interfering with due democratic process, and sticking to the letter of the Transitional Local Government Act (TLGA) rather than embracing its spirit.
Elsewhere in kwaZulu/Natal, the ANC and IFP have reportedly formed a cordial working relationship, but are now battling against National Party members who occupy a disproportionately high number of seats in the negotiating forums.
”The TLGA is a product of negotiation and as such it had to accommodate different interests,” said Andrew Boraine, executive director of the Institute for Local Government and Development.
”It is a legal document which reflects a political understanding. In some areas it was impossible to define legally what was meant politically.”
The powers of traditional leaders in local government is proving another flashpoint. In kwaZulu/Natal, arrangements for rural local government are lagging behind other provinces because of chiefs’ reluctance to relinquish their local fiefdoms.
IFP sources indicate that the party will not settle for a dispensation that does not accommodate traditional leaders. ANC sources believe that Miller’s intervention in the Durban talks flowed from a desire to protect chiefs whose areas of influence fall within the boundaries of the proposed Durban metropole.
The role of traditional leaders has also been a sticking point in the Eastern Cape, where the Congress of Traditional Leaders of South Africa (Contralesa) has objected to South African National Civic Organisation (Sanco) attempts to mobilise for democratic local government in the area, accusing Sanco of undermining the chiefs’ authority. (See Page 12)
The transition to democratic local government in rural areas has been smoothest in provinces where traditional leaders do not wield influence.
However, large parts of rural South Africa historically without local authorities have yet to establish interim structures before elections can take place. In the Western Cape, rural organisations have voiced concern that provincial MEC for local government Piet Marais had not begun the process of consultation as a first step towards transitional structures.
Boraine says that some areas may be excluded from local government elections if no authorities have been established in time to meet the poll deadline.
He is cautiously optimistic about the election date, which is already a year later than initially proposed: ”It is technically possible to meet the date, depending on provinces and transitional councils meeting their deadlines.”
Other observers stress that a further extension would be politically disastrous, as appointed transitional councils lack the credibility to fulfil their spearhead role in the reconstruction and development programme.
”The October deadline is not realistic,” says Sanco’s John Neels. ”But if we keep to that date we can make it happen.”