Calls to scrap SA’s nine provinces have been a feature of politics for more than 20 years, with the Azanian People's Organisation describing them as a heavy burden on the taxpayer as long ago as 2001.
The scale of that burden has been made clear by finance minister Enoch Godongwana, who revealed in a parliamentary reply that the cost of provincial legislatures and the 430 politicians who warm their benches now tops R4bn.
On average, every South African pays nearly R68 a year to keep provincial legislatures afloat. But Godongwana’s response to a question from Good Party MP Brett Herron shows the 1.3-million residents of the Northern Cape pay more than twice as much.
At R161.02, the Kimberley legislature’s annual cost per citizen comes to more than five times the R31.34 Western Cape residents pay.
The good news for the people of the Northern Cape is that there is a provincial legislature member for every 43,625 residents. That number rises five-fold to 220,528 in the most populous province, Gauteng.
Provinces are responsible for health and education, which take the lion’s share of their budgets, but as far back as 2006 the ANC said it was considering abolishing them to streamline service delivery through municipalities.
Provinces are a political scandal that entrenches tribalism and regionalism. They are fundamentally not far removed from the logic of the homeland system.
— Themba Godi
Nothing came of the plan, but the topic has repeatedly bubbled to the surface of political discussions, and in 2017 the National Assembly debated a proposal to scrap provinces tabled by African People’s Convention MP Themba Godi.
He said scrapping provinces and district municipalities would free up billions of rand. “They have proven themselves to be havens of corruption and inefficiency. They have been an unnecessary drain on the fiscus, a bottleneck to service delivery and development,” he said.
“Provinces are a political scandal that entrenches tribalism and regionalism. They are fundamentally not far removed from the logic of the homeland system.”
UDM leader Bantu Holomisa said the idea of provinces was introduced during negotiations leading to democracy as “a compromise to accommodate fears of the minority groups, and this has proven to be ineffective and a place to disperse patronage”.
He added: “What we have done so far has been to create glorified homelands, bigger in size, but with the same body and shape, that mirror tribal, racial and ethnic character.”
The DA’s Solly Malatsi said there was nothing wrong with provinces that good governance couldn’t fix, and Godongwana’s reply to Herron shows that each resident of the DA-run Western Cape pays less than half the national average for their legislature.
There are 171,718 residents for each of the Western Cape’s 42 legislature members (MPLs), a number exceeded only in the most populous province, Gauteng, which has 73 MPLs.
KwaZulu-Natal has the biggest legislature, with 80 members, but residents pay only R55.84 each annually, well below the national average of R67.78.
Godongwana’s figures, combined with Stats SA’s midyear population estimates issued in July, show a close relationship between the cost of legislatures and provincial population densities.
The Northern Cape has the lowest population density — just 3.5 people per square kilometre — as well as the highest per capita provincial legislature cost. Gauteng has 885.6 people per sq km and the second lowest legislature cost of R51.26 a person. And KZN has the second highest population density — 122.3 per sq km — and a relatively low legislature cost of R55.84 per person.
Gauteng’s legislature costs the most (R825.2m) and the Northern Cape’s the least (R210.7m).
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