With municipal elections set for next year, the government is planning to announce major changes in the way local authorities operate.
The focus fell on municipalities last month during President Thabo Mbeki’s whistle-stop tour, when most of the issues that dominated his encounters with ordinary citizens concerned failures of local government, from billing foul-ups to the provision of water and electricity.
Mbeki noted in an interview with City Press just before the election that local governments are responsible for framing and implementing policies to relieve poverty, but ”clearly they cannot cope. We need to empower local government to be able, for instance … to respond properly to the challenges of poverty alleviation and poverty eradication.
”This is going to require financial and human resources.”
Burdened by debt, inexperienced councillors and inefficient officials, local government has emerged as the weakest link in government .
In fact, the CEO of the South African Local Government Association (Salga), Thabo Mokwena, has warned that if local government is unable to demonstrate its ability to deliver before local government elections, there is a danger of voter apathy.
Explaining some of the weaknesses, Mokwena said that, unlike national and provincial government, the transformation of local government was staggered and involved a consolidation of separate systems.
He maintained that municipalities had built roads, created jobs and delivered water and electricity.
Still, ”municipalities must demonstrate their value before the elections; otherwise they risk people not voting.
”But communities must also take interest in their local affairs because if they do not, they could end up being governed by people who have no interest in their welfare.”
Responding to Mbeki’s biting comments about local government, Xolani Xundu, spokesperson for Sydney Mufamadi, said the department of provincial and local government had ”noted the comments and will respond to the relevant structures of government”.
He added that the massive sum of R26-billion owed to municipalities contributed to their weak state.
”It is money that could be used for infrastructure development. Some of it is old debt accumulated before 1994. We collect what we can but also take into account that some of it is from really poor people who cannot afford to pay,” Xundu said.
But at local level many politicians say that the president’s observations present them with an opportunity to ask for more funds.
”If you say there is no delivery, the question is what support has national and provincial government given to these municipalities,” said a Gauteng councillor.
”Most of the municipalities have no fiscal base to enable them to meet expectations. Except for the bigger metros, the municipalities are struggling and there is a need for an intervention to make them financially viable. But we are happy with the acceptance from higher echelons that this arm of governance must be strengthened.”
National officials have blamed the weakness of ”comrades at local level” for some of the problems.
”Some of them do not understand policies, and you find that employed officials are stronger than elected councillors and therefore in charge,” said an official who asked not to be identified.
”Some councillors are quite happy to live off the good perks of their positions but are found wanting intellectually.”
Gauteng ANC provincial secretary David Makhura recently said that, besides issues of financial management, most municipalities were struggling because they worked on their own, in isolation from other spheres of government.
”Even if they were given more money, they would struggle. Only a pooling of resources and skills between all spheres would enhance delivery.”
He said that the province was going to review all its structures and would not hesitate to remove incompetent councillors.
Salga has organised a ”consultative assembly” on May 14 which will bring the country’s 284 mayors and their municipal managers together to discuss these issues and formulate a way forward for local government.
Meanwhile the department of provincial and local government is forging ahead with plans for local government elections, expected in the second half of next year.
Department senior manager, advocate Shami Kholong, said the first step was to update the common voters’ roll, as numbers had increased 18-million in 2000 to 20-million voters.
”We also have to publish a formula of councillor allocation for each municipality and finalise boundaries for each voting district,” he said.