External aid needed for Mangaung

Mangaung in the Free State is the one of the country’s eight metros that need external support to reach its full capacity, according to the second working paper series of the Capable Cities index (CCI).

Despite this, the capacity of municipalities overall has improved since the last survey for 2010-13. The study is compiled by the Applied Constitutional Studies Laboratory and the Dullah Omar Institute at the University of the Western Cape.

The CCI measures and ranks the capabilities of municipalities on the basis of their consistency in maintaining high levels of capacity, performance and compliance. The report found Mangaung’s capacity deficiencies was unlikely to be rectified without external intervention.

The report noted that 70% of municipalities could rely on incremental decreases in vacancy rates to approach full capacity, while the rest of the municipalities were defined by capacity deficits. This stemmed largely from demand constraints. Municipalities would have to lift labour demand constraints to raise their scores.

There has been a significant improvement in the extent to which municipalities have filled available posts.

This, the report found, had translated into a general improvement in municipal capacity, which was measured by the capabilities index.

In 2013-16, 45 municipalities did not have permanently appointed chief financial officers and municipal managers.

However, this has also been an improvement as it had dropped from 79 municipalities in the previous period.