President Thabo Mbeki grilled Northern Cape mayors on Friday about underspending on their capital budgets.
He also warned that local-level infighting in the African National Congress, which hampers municipal delivery, has to stop.
His interventions came during a day-long local government imbizo (meeting), in Kimberley, with politicians and officials from the four councils that fall under the Frances Baard district municipality, and from national and provincial government departments.
They also come ahead of nationwide local government elections, due by early next year.
During a closed-door session in the morning with the mayors and senior officials, Mbeki noted that though the five municipalities’ capital budget for 2004/05 total R200-million, only R100-million has been spent.
”Why?” he asked.
Capacity problems
Mayors, including Frances Baard’s Moira Marais-Martin, told the meeting that the municipalities have capacity problems, including a shortage of skilled staff in key areas such as finance and engineering.
”We were saying it’s capacity, and that is why we had quite a thorough look at what does that mean,” Marais-Martin said afterwards. ”Because then the president again challenged us to say, ‘Okay, how much of what [resources] do you need?’
”So, that is the exercise that we now have to go and do; to actually determine exactly how much of which kinds of people, which kinds of skills do we need to assist us to improve our expenditure levels on capital budgets.
”He was definitely taking us to task, but I have no problem with that. It was a very engaging session.
”It was exciting to actually be able to speak to the president and I think he is asking very incisive questions, and he is making us think about what we are doing.”
Plan for economic development
Speaking later, at an open session that included ordinary councillors and ward-committee members, Mbeki said there has been agreement on a need for ”a sensible, credible” local economic development plan for the area.
”As a consequence of which it should also then be possible for both the provincial government and the national government to focus its assistance better in the Frances Baard area,” Mbeki said.
He also said attention has to be given to ”political problems” of ANC infighting in the Sol Plaatje municipality, which centres on Kimberley and Phokwane (Jan Kempdorp) and Pampierstad.
”When we were in the Northern Cape in the provincial imbizo … in March, this issue was raised particularly about this Frances Baard area, its political problems. I thought we had agreed something must be done about it. But clearly nothing has been done about it,” Mbeki said.
”I don’t think we can allow a situation in which these tensions and conflicts — which arise from within an organisation which says we serve the people of South Africa — and then these conflicts arise as a consequence of which it fails to serve the people of South Africa.
”That can’t be right. We can’t have a situation in which municipalities find it difficult to function because there are some comrades who are debating something or the other about themselves
or even beating each other up with coffee tins,” he added to laughter from his listeners.
”It has to be attended to. I think it’s been going on for too long.”
Ward committees
Mbeki also quizzed the municipalities on the troubled ward-committee system, saying it appears there is a funding problem to the extent that some committee members have to borrow from old-age pensioners to do their work.
This has to be addressed.
”The law says the municipalities, the councils must make funds available for the proper functioning of ward committees. So, it’s something we must follow up because if we’re not doing it, we are breaking the law.”
The imbizo was held as part of the Department of Provincial and Local Government’s Project Consolidate, which is aimed at municipalities that need support for effective service delivery.
Two of the Francis Baard municipalities — Phokwane and Dikgatlong (Barkly West) — are already getting Project Consolidate support. — Sapa