All levels of government have to work towards more balanced economic growth in South Africa, Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi said on Thursday.
Mufamadi was speaking at a conference for local government representatives to meet provincial and national government figures.
”The main source of national fiscal [revenue] cannot be [the] economic activity of a small geographic space and the rest of the country depends on social grants.”
Mufamadi said the current situation ”can’t be correct in which we have 284 municipalities, and 80% plus of the industrial output comes from only six metros and 12 secondary cities”.
”That kind of arrangement is unsustainable. This means as a country we are sitting on a powder keg.”
Mufamadi said the shift of the ”epicentre” of mining to largely rural areas in Limpopo and North West should be harnessed ”to create a development trajectory that is more balanced than today”.
Mufamadi said his department is giving R32-billion to municipalities this year.
However, he also called on municipalities to generate more of their own revenue.
Municipalities should also communicate better with the citizens they served: ”It will be better for us to appear more on the ground and less on TV.”
Mufamadi kept conference delegates guessing about whether his department might have any plans to merge certain provinces.
All he said on the matter is ”we are not going to make any announcement on any province except that we will need to engage that process closely”.
Earlier, Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool also addressed the conference.
He told local government delegates they should use the example of the Western Cape and how it deals with constant government upheavals to demonstrate that ”if they can get it right you can get it right”.– Sapa