Local not lekker

National regional and local media are replete with stories of criminal negligence and outright abuse of public resources.

The poorest and most vulnerable are often the first to suffer when government at any level fails to do its job. In the case of South Africa, its sheer size (1.2 million sq km, or almost double the combined landmass of Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda and Burundi!), makes local government imperative. Sadly, municipal governments across all of South Africa have mainly been a disappointment over the last 20 years.

Forget the corruption and tenders for sale. Local government is failing South Africans mostly because of the dearth of technical expertise. For better or worse, the provision of municipal services like refuse collection, road repair and lighting streets starts with having competent bean counters. These good men and women help prepare recurrent and capital budgets as well as the project cash flow bells and whistles upon which spending decisions are based. Without these roadmaps, even a household of four will struggle to balance its books; and the matriarch might have to visit the neighbour for a cup of sugar before month end.

The problem is multiplied 100-fold in a city like Grahamstown with so little economic activity. We should be getting more bang from our scarce resources - which is impossible if the bureaucracy is wafer-thin and weighed down by politics.

Sadly, this is to be our lot in the near term.