Reflecting on a battery of concerns raised at a Cape Town municipal imbizo (meeting) on Wednesday, mostly around service delivery, President Thabo Mbeki emphasised the critical importance of local government.
“Everything that government does will stand or fall, succeed or fail, depending on what happens at local government level,” he told an audience of community development workers (CDWs), councillors and ward-committee members in Khayelitsha.
Among the experiences voiced were issues of perceived corruption; a lack of communication between the CDWs, ward committees and councillors; not enough capacity and facilities and the slow pace of development and service delivery.
Using housing as an example, Mbeki said it does not matter what is decided at national level by Minister of Housing Lindiwe Sisulu if the structure of the government is not working and houses are not being built in a locality.
He said the same applies to the country’s democracy and the notion of popular participation in ward committees.
“Because we are moving from this fundamental proposition that the people shall govern, and the people shan’t govern if all that happens is communities get marginalised, as somebody said, and all we do is empower some officials and some people up there. So, I’m saying even the health of the democratic system depends on our success with regard to the work done by ward committees and so on.”
Legislation
Mbeki said the Department of Provincial and Local Government might need to review current legislation concerning ward committees, such as the legal imperative to change them on a yearly basis.
He suggested that there is a need to change this because the rapid turnover of committee members is not necessarily the best option.
Mbeki said a number of the issues raised are common throughout the country, such as tensions between CDWs and ward committees around the selection of CDWs from outside the local community, as well as the payment of these development workers and not committee members.
He said the financing of ward committees needs to be looked at because it is clear there is a problem around this.
Mbeki queried a council report by Gavin Paulse, speaker of the City of Cape Town, which showed that each ward received an allocation of R200 000 for capital projects and R100 000 for operations.
“What is that? Don’t answer. This is the very first time that I come across a thing like that, that part of the development funds for a ward come under the control of a ward committee, including operations. This is somewhat trans-changing the nature of the ward committees … It might be a good innovation, it might be a bad innovation, but I think it’s something we will probably have to look at.”
Cape Town chided
Mbeki also gently chided the City of Cape Town for only establishing its ward committees in 2004, despite legislation being in place prior to that, which made provision for the necessary funding from council to these committees.
“It’s a legal obligation … I don’t know who was there in the Cape Town municipal council before 2004 who acted illegally on this matter. Perhaps we should go and fetch them and arrest them.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Mbeki heard suggestions from the City of Cape Town on how central government can help accelerate housing delivery so that the metropolis eradicates slums by 2014.
Outside the OR Tambo hall, a small group of disgruntled African National Congress members from Khayelitsha, who have been engaged in an ongoing war of words with the provincial leadership of the party, demonstrated their unhappiness.
Mbeki skirted the question of political party infighting and alleged misbehaviour, drawing a distinction between the government and the ruling party.
However, Mbeki noted that such fights undermine the confidence of the people in democracy and result in the marginalisation of people in terms of popular participation.
“And I think therefore, it is correct to say that we need to intervene to solve this problems,” said Mbeki, without elaborating on who the “we” would be — the ANC or the government. — Sapa