Individuals with ”criminally selfish motives” should be prevented from being elected municipal councillors, President Thabo Mbeki said on Friday.
He said he has received disturbing reports of prospective councillors using or threatening voters with violence to ensure they are nominated.
Some also use bribery, Mbeki told the last day of a sitting of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in Nkowankowa outside Tzaneen in Limpopo.
”This unseemly scramble for political power in municipal government appears to be driven by the desire to abuse elected positions to lay hands on the economic resources that the local authorities have the possibility to access,” Mbeki said.
”It is obvious that those desperately hungry for political power for selfish reasons are driven first and foremost by hunger to get rich quick at the expense of the poor of our country.”
Municipal government is responsible for providing reliable services to citizens and should be at the forefront of reconstruction and development efforts, Mbeki said.
”We cannot build such a system of municipal government by electing councillors driven by criminally selfish motives.”
Mbeki urged the NCOP to advocate actively against the nomination of candidates who are not truly committed to serving the citizenry.
It should also make sure that people are aware of the kinds of behaviour acceptable in nomination processes.
Lack of capacity
The president said a lack of capacity is hampering municipalities’ service-delivery efforts.
Many communities still have no access to clean water, sanitation or electricity.
To this end, the government’s Project Consolidate — aimed at empowering local government — has made great strides, he said.
More resources are, however, needed to hire skilled personnel and eradicate staffing imbalances left behind from the apartheid era.
”We surely have an obligation to provide the municipalities with the resources they need,” Mbeki said.
Limpopo Premier Sello Moloto highlighted his province’s problems with drought — with crops and livestock dying and hospitals left without water.
The province intends asking the national government to declare affected places disaster areas.
Mbeki responded: ”I think we should move on that.”
Moloto also lamented the slow pace of land reform in Limpopo, with about 88% of productive land in the province under land claims.
”Due to uncertainties related to these land claims and the slow pace with which this challenge is attended to, agricultural productivity has largely been affected.”
He expressed the hope that the Department of Agriculture and Land Affairs will attend to the problem as soon as possible.
Problems raised
NCOP chairperson Johannes Mahlangu said problems citizens raised during the NCOP’s sitting this week related to water provision, housing, land reform, electricity, health facilities and education.
”Responses to the questions by ministers have given us hope that the government is seized with the challenges facing our country,” he said. ”We will, as Parliament, monitor progress on the undertakings they have made.”
Mbeki underscored the need to coordinate the work of different government spheres — ”so we can plan, work and implement in an integrated fashion”.
In this process, the role of traditional leaders should not be forgotten.
Boosting capacity is a priority, Mbeki said.
To this end, a system should be found to share best practice among provinces. — Sapa