South Africa’s rural municipalities are losing the battle to provide basic services, says a report released by the Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE) on Thursday.
”The picture of post-apartheid local government transformation in South Africa’s small towns is a worrying one,” says researcher Doreen Atkinson.
”Senior officials are desperately overworked. Councillors and managers are so busy attending meeting after workshop after conference after launch that they are hardly able to keep up with the routine tasks that demand their attention.”
Atkinson is research director for the Human Sciences Research Council which was commissioned by the CDE to conduct the study on small towns in the Free State and Northern Cape. She concludes a range of difficulties are hampering the provision of municipal services. These include what she describes as unrealistic municipal demarcations.
”Decision makers radically underestimated the sheer scale of administration required by the new demarcations,” Atkinson says.
”Xhariep district municipality in the southern Free State is the size of Hungary, and the Namakwa district is almost as wide as Kansas.”
In the Northern Cape, one found municipalities with a diameter of up to 150km, consisting of three to four towns.
Kopanong Municipality in the Free State combines no less than nine municipalities that used to function as single entities. Atkinson says funding of local governments is inadequate. Poor financial management compounds this problem, with too much money being spent on salaries.
Political transformation led to a loss of experienced councillors and officials. ”The experience and knowledge of older councillors have been bypassed since the local government elections in 2000 when first-time councillors were brought into office,” says the report.
”New staff appointments have been the order of the day, with many based on political patronage.”
In the Free State, says Atkinson, the African National Congress Youth League vetted candidates for the posts of municipal manager in all provincial municipalities.
”Tension has developed between elected councillors and longer-serving municipal staff, leading to local government virtually breaking down for extended periods.”
Atkinson says municipalities’ integrated development plans (IDPs) are ”no more than impractical wish lists” because of a lack of funds, expertise, and management.
It is unclear how service backlogs will ever be eliminated. ”Many municipalities…simply cannot become the developmental agencies the White Paper on Local Government and current government policy are built upon,” Atkinson says.
”The creeping assignment of functions by national and provincial government to the local level complicates an already grave financial situation.” – Sapa