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Barry Streek
The situation in two more municipalities – Stilfontein in the North-West and Noupoort in the Northern Cape – has reached such critical proportions that, in terms of the Constitution, the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) will have to intervene next week.
This follows NCOP interventions in Butterworth in the Eastern Cape, Oogies in Mpumalanga, Tweeling in the Free State, Wedela in the North-West and Warrenton in the Northern Cape.
The Ministry of Provincial and Local Government has estimated that 250 of the 850 municipalities in South Africa are in financial trouble.
But, says Mohammed Bhabha, chair of the NCOP’s standing committee on provincial and local government and public administration, the local authorities are not really to blame and many have succeeded in delivering despite complex arrangements in the Local Government Transitional Act and difficult financial circumstances.
During the pre-1994 negotiations, a compromise agreement resulted in three sunset clauses which will expire on November 1 this year. This meant that all municipal budgets had to be passed by a two-thirds majority, all town planning has to be passed by a two-thirds majority and wards were demarcated on a 50/50 basis, which allocated 50% of the seats on the councils to previous white, coloured and Indian areas and 50% to former bantu administration areas. These restrictions made transformation in the municipal areas very difficult, particularly if there was no co-operation across political and racial lines.
In Tweeling, for instance, two African National Congress councillors broke ranks and voted for the former mayor to be re- elected. The ANC took disciplinary action, removed them from its proportional representation list and replaced them. The two dissidents then went to court and as a result the two replacements could not take up their seats. This resulted in a situation where every vote was split halfway, no budget could be passed and no mayor could be elected. Yet the municipality, which was responsible for 2 000 residents before 1994, now had to look after an extra 10 000 to 12 000 residents, a figure that was increasing all the time because of evictions from farms.
Bhabha says that in Standerton, which was part of his constituency, some land in the centre of the town had been identified and funds secured for new housing, but because it involved a change in town planning, a two-thirds majority could not be secured. Large numbers of people were being evicted from farms in the area.
“Because we don’t have land there we have a huge, huge informal settlement problem in Standerton. From the starting line, many of these councils were already handicapped and it would be erroneous, apart from a few examples, to place the blame on councils when from the very inception they were doomed to failure.”
The Oogies administration, with 10 employees, used to be responsible for 2 000 people, but despite the addition after 1994 of 40 000 people from neighbouring Phola Park, there are now only seven employees. But because of the high unemployment in the area, the council’s tax base has not increased significantly.
Bhabha says there are other problems. In Kinross, every municipal asset, such as sports grounds and the golf course, was leased out “before we came to power. So the people with the least resources still don’t have access to the municipal sports facilities.”
The Kinross golf course was leased out for R10 a year and the municipality was still responsible for its maintenance. One of the few halls in the area was on the golf course, but it could not be hired out except at exorbitant rates.
In Ermelo, the council built a R4-million tartan athletic track, which has yet to be used for any national or international events, and then leased it out. “So no one has access to a facility which wasn’t needed, and the municipality is contractually obliged to maintain the track. It’s capital expenditure leased to a club.”
Most of the leases were for nine years and 11 months, just short of the 10-year limit on leases that had to be registered at the deeds office.
“When many of these municipalities were established, the coffers were already bare. None of the municipalities were established on the basis of economic sustainability. It was a purely political decision. When we negotiated we were trying to save the country from civil war,”says Bhabha.
In terms of the provincial ordinances for local government, town administrations virtually ran the show and councils met once a month to ratify their decisions.
Now new councillors have been elected and charged with the process of transforming the country. In many areas, this has resulted in mutual suspicion between the councillors and the administrators, even though the new councillors are substantially more closely involved with the people who knock at their doors with their problems.
The Constitution virtually contradicts the Local Government Transition Act, but its sunset clauses remain in force until November 1. No intrusion on the integrity of local authorities can take place because they have been given original powers in the Constitution.
“This is unique in the world. They cannot be usurped by any other sphere of government. What happens if there is overemphasis on the integrity of local government and no delivery is taking place?” says Bhabha.
This is where the provincial governments have to intervene, but in terms of the Constitution their decisions have to be ratified by the NCOP. The province has to approach the NCOP for this approval. Bhabha’s committee then investigates the matter.
In general, the major problem is the lack of money and the lack of resources.
“The key point is that whenever we find levels of reconciliation are sound and there is co-operation between the political parties, the fewer the racial and political problems and the less vulnerable they are for failing to deliver.
“The same system applies to all municipalities. Why do some municipalities win Masakhane awards and others collapse?” Bhabha asks.
>From November 1 a new demarcation system will be in place and the number of municipalities will be reduced. Bhabha will not speculate, but the 850 councils could be reduced to as few as 450. He does say, however, that the new boundaries will be based on economic sustainability and settlement patterns.
The sunset clauses will no longer be in effect. The new councils will be elected on the basis of 50% in wards and 50% proportional.
“The social engineering of the past has to be reversed. It is not all doom and gloom. We have to survive until the November 1 elections. Then, hopefully, municipalities will be established on more empirical and objective criteria,” Bhabha says.
He also says that the problem now is that the NCOP “gets the patient when it is already in intensive care. What we don’t have is an early warning system. And that is what we are trying to develop in legislation.”