The South African Local Government Association has called on political parties to deploy skilled and knowledgeable councillors to ensure efficient municipalities.
Speaking during day two of the state of the nation debate, Salga president Bheke Stofile said as much as they supported President Cyril Ramaphosa’s view on the appointment of properly qualified municipal officials to ensure effective management and provision of services, similar focus should be placed on councillors.
“Our analysis confirms that every five years, the high turnaround in local government, exacerbated by lack of proper screening of candidates, sets the sector back in terms of leadership, governance and oversight stability,” he said.
“Despite numerous interventions to increase the capacity of councillors during a term of office, the task is daunting, and the gaps are blatant as recent developments, particularly in coalitions, have exposed serious weaknesses in the leadership qualities of many councillors,” said Stofile.
“We once more repeat our plea to all political parties to prioritise deployment of skilled and knowledgeable councillors.”
Stofile said a more radical proposal was a set of minimum criteria, together with the introduction of a performance management and accountability-based remuneration regime for councillors and senior managers ahead of the next elections.
Stofile applauded the national government for organising a national dialogue on coalition governments in August last year. He spoke about the negative impact of coalition governments on service delivery and municipal governance in his speech last year.
On Wednesday, Stofile said they were hopeful that the national dialogue would bring the country closer towards a framework for coalition governments that can be used as a guide for political parties to structure their coalitions.
With regard to the national interventions alluded to earlier, we tend to react and respond to the occurrences and not the underlying causes.
— Salga president Bheke Stofile
Without a framework to guide political parties in structuring and managing coalitions, political parties and independent councillors will be required to establish coalitions while being uncertain about the rules or mechanisms needed to maximise the incentives for co-operation in a coalition government, said Stofile.
In its quest to install capable leaders in municipalities, the ANC drew up criteria to decide which councillors would be installed as mayors ahead of the November 1 2021 local government elections.
The party outlined a requirement of a tertiary level qualification and at least five years of local government or public institution experience. Metropolitan mayors had to specifically demonstrate previous experience in the public or private sector, where they led a team of more than 100 employees. District and local mayors needed to have led a team of at least 50 people.
Stofile said, according to stats, a large part of the South African population reside in cities that continue to face growing environmental, societal and economic challenges with growing levels of demand for municipal basic services.
“It therefore means that in the absence of an acknowledgment of the importance of local government, we face the increased risk of not creating sustainable human settlements which provide for a decent quality of life and meet the social, economic and material needs of communities in a holistic way.
“We must, therefore, looking into the future, define an appropriate response to the picture painted by Census 2022.”
Stofile complained that despite its pivotal role in building democracy and promoting socioeconomic development, with the responsibility for 46% of the constitutional functions, local government “still remained the step-child”.
Recent disturbing developments in the water and electricity distribution space have witnessed national and provincial governments increasingly encroaching into the powers and functions of local government.
“We are concerned that instead of working collaboratively in the spirit of co-operative governance and providing the necessary ongoing support as defined in section 154 of the constitution, national and provincial governments have elected to encroach into the powers and functions of local government.”
In its assessment, Salga concluded that local government was a complex sphere of government and it required a proper diagnosis, to develop a response that is appropriate, said Stofile. An appropriate response requires a distinction between the occurrences, patterns and trends versus the systemic and structural issues.
“With regard to the national interventions alluded to earlier, we tend to react and respond to the occurrences and not the underlying causes.
“It is Salga’s respectful view that in dealing with the state of local government and its challenges, consideration has to be given to a number of interventions as a package instead of wanting to deal with them in isolation.”
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