Municipalities are key network industries
Many of the country’s plans for inclusive growth and sustainable socioeconomic development face one challenge that may never be met — the assumption of a capable state. Key to this is professionalising municipalities and their work.
President Cyril Ramaphosa emphasised in his state of the nation address that the provincial and national government would “redouble their efforts to support and strengthen the capacity of municipalities as required by section 154 of the constitution”, with 40 municipalities earmarked for this special quadrupled support.
Seeing municipalities as network industries will be key to unlocking the kind of capacity building required for them. Network industries cover areas of energy, transport, communications, and water and waste management and, the work of municipalities is central to them. By considering how each of the larger municipalities could be capacitated through a network industry strategy, the economy might be truly positioned for growth.
● Energy: Cape Town, East London (Buffalo City municipality) and Port Elizabeth (Nelson Mandela Bay municipality) are particularly windy and most of our wind farms are in their vicinity, while the larger solar farms are further north in Limpopo, North West and Mpumalanga. Capacity building from a professionalisation point of view should thus be focusing on how many engineers to train so municipalities have adequate capacity to meet the energy needs of households and businesses in those areas.
● Transport: Limpopo, the Western Cape, KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape are agricultural centres. How does the agritransport strategy contextualise to the location of the municipalities in these provinces? Providing them with efficient road and rail networks and skills and infrastructure will ensure the business environment thrives while services will drive socioeconomic development.
● Waste and water resources: The Vaal River and Hartbeespoort Dam have had many issues in the management of their resources as well as waste water treatment. If the state deploys top specialists in those municipalities to deal effectively with the challenges, a blueprint could be created for waste and water resource management in other parts of the country.
● Communications: The data services market inquiry found data costs on a benchmarked basis are unsustainably expensive and hurting poorer people particularly. The issues delaying the release of highdemand spectrum have added to the communications challenge on the development agenda. At a municipal level, sites for the building and maintenance of new towers (particularly in the highdemand spectrum) are a key infrastructure consideration, and the right capacity building is required to ensure there is equitable participation in the sector, such that the cost of communications reduces significantly over time.
Gauteng, with its rising urban population and net migration, is particularly well positioned to use its large municipalities as effective partners to the business environment and its citizens.
Service delivery and network industries are inextricably tied in their core functions, hence the call to see municipalities as network industries. Effort and resources can be focused on areas where economic and developmental impact will be maximised with each rand invested.
In smaller towns, working for the municipality carries some prestige — it is often associated with a higher salary. There is, therefore, an opportunity to rethink the way in which working for municipalities as a highperformance centre can be positioned, in the same way many would love to work for the Industrial Development Corporation or the Public Investment Corporation.