The results of the coming May local government elections will register the nation’s opinion on whether the transformation process in municipalities has succeeded in the past decade.
It was during the first term of democratic government (1994 to 1999) that the founding legislation of the new local government system was enacted. This tier of government then began the transition process, with a newly elected interim dispensation, to establish new municipal boundaries, public service conditions and institutional arrangements and policy, as well as the regulatory frameworks to be able to deliver on its new, highly developmental mandate.
The first fully democratic local government elections in terms of the new constitutional and legislative framework for municipal governance were held in December 2000. The three core transformative mandates of the local sphere of government were to provide for representative government, service delivery and development.
In practice this meant strengthening democratic institutions, building social cohesion, improving public services and bolstering the economy. What concerned national government over the ensuing decade was that in spite of the extensive support and training provided to local government, capacity remained a significant constraint.
The reality was that 283 new municipalities and metros needed to recruit whole new teams of qualified senior managers and appoint new councils, to administer “new” spaces and “new” communities, with an immense burden of societal expectation placed upon them. As the challenges emerged, it became clear that one could not assess municipal effectiveness without assessing the capacity of the state in each sphere — that is, the conduct and practice of intergovernmental relations at both national and provincial level.
The challenges of poor integration of planning and budgets, and of concurrent sector-led programmes in areas such as housing, transport and water pointed to some key failures in the system — and municipalities were taking the blame alone. The urgent need to improve the coordination of government service delivery suggested that a stronger policy framework to support the objectives of cooperative governance was required. This is currently being developed.
The acknowledgement that change is not happening as rapidly and effectively as the government and citizens require was made by President Jacob Zuma in 2009. He urged the government to identify challenges that inhibit public service efficiency and to identify appropriate interventions. Informed by practical assessments of the functionality of the local government system on the ground, which resulted in the local government turnaround strategy, the president and Sicelo Shiceka, the minister of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, signed the Delivery Agreement for Outcome Nine on April 29 2010.
This agreement is about achieving a responsive, accountable, effective and efficient local government system. The delivery agreement identified a progressive series of intergovernmental initiatives to turn the tide in local government by 2014 and the objectives of outcome nine are contained in seven outputs that are briefly described here.
Output one deals with a differentiated approach to municipal financing, planning and support. It stems from the point of departure that what is needed is a more rigorous, data-driven and detailed segmentation of municipalities into a number of categories that better reflect the varied capacities and contexts within which municipalities exist across the country.
Output two focuses on improved access to basic services. A critical obstacle to accelerating the provision of basic services is the lack of infrastructure in rural areas. The establishment of the special-purpose vehicle on municipal infrastructure will provide an efficient mechanism to address this challenge. The SPV will be operational by April 1.
Another mechanism to accelerate the delivery of basic services is the establishment of the Bulk Infrastructure Fund, also due to be implemented in 2011. The national treasury is the key partner of the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs in both programmes.
Output three deals with supporting job creation through the upscaling of the community work programme. Good progress has been made here in that 81 412 work opportunities had been created by December 2010 (the target to be achieved by March 31 is 87 000). This was across 410 wards in 46 municipalities nationwide.
Another obstacle to basic service provision is the proliferation of informal settlements in urban areas. Therefore, output four focuses on support to achieve sustainable human settlements. This is an integrated policy matter, in that it involves the coordinated efforts of many different actors with different roles and responsibilities, particularly those in provincial and local government and a range of potential partners.
A policy framework is under development to increase densities in metros and large towns by 2014, initiate actions to release public land for low-income and affordable housing and support the expansion of the national upgrading support programme in 45 priority municipalities to enable the upgrading of informal settlements. Because of the importance the government places on strengthening a people-centred approach to governance and development at local level, output five focuses on the deepening of democracy through a refined ward committee model.
A new concept document on the revised ward committee framework has been developed to provide a legislative framework for ward committees that gives effect to new responsibilities and institutional arrangements, as well as broader stakeholder participation.
Output six focuses on improving the financial and administrative management of municipalities to address the lack of controls and accountability systems. Operation Clean Audit and the department’s inspectorate dealing with fraud and corruption in provinces and municipalities should strengthen the good-governance and anticorruption capacities of municipalities. Other activities include the revenue enhancement strategy to reduce municipal debt and ensure that money owed by provinces, national departments and state-owned entities is paid to -municipalities.
Output seven deals with establishing, by 2014, a single window of coordination to bring about greater cohesion in the work of government, particularly at national level with respect to policy and legislation being reviewed and amended on a yearly basis for a revised regulatory environment. For example, the Municipal Systems Act Amendment Bill, which is due to be passed into law by Parliament, is focused on strengthening the regulatory powers of the minister with regard to human resource systems and procedures for local government.
Governance is a process of change and reform informed by conditions on the ground. In many countries, looking for ways to improve the management of local spaces continues to occupy regional and national governments. Ultimately, local government requires that national and provincial governments respect their distinctiveness, but with the regulated provisos that each tier has a supervising sphere to oversee its effectiveness and accountability and contribute to joint service delivery outcomes.
By the May elections, national and provincial government will have helped transform local government by implementing an outcomes-based governance system. The departure point for local government is that the other spheres of government must now plan for how they intend to support municipal areas, in a coordinated intergovernmental effort for more efficient and integrated development.
Elroy Africa is the director general of the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs