Metro mulls leaving cities think-tank
Benefits and cost of membership of body debated by mayoral committee
THE Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is mulling over terminating its longstanding membership with urban think-tank South African Cities Network (SACN). Concern about the benefits and value for money that come with the membership and subscription were raised by councillors in a mayoral committee meeting on Wednesday.
The SACN is an independent research provider where member cities share ideas on urban development and city management.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is among the metros that joined when it got off the ground in 2002.
The other local authorities are eThekwini, Johannesburg, Ekurhuleni, Mangaung, City of Tshwane, and Msunduzi , which encompasses Pietermaritzburg.
Nelson Mandela Bay pays R2 276 010 in membership fees, but this is expected to increase to R3.5-million when the city joins the SACN council as part of a new memorandum of incorporation.
The network established a new council on October 3.
It is expected that the council chair, fiduciary board and audit committee will be elected at a meeting in January.
Budget and treasury head Retief Odendaal said he was “considerably concerned” by the subscription and membership of the SACN.
The city was also interrogating its membership of the South African Local Government Association (Salga). “It’s a case of value for money.” He requested the item be deferred to allow the committee to consider its position at a political level.
Mayor and committee chairman Athol Trollip said the city needed to interrogate why membership of both Salga and the SACN was necessary.
“For example, our [Salga] membership fee and subscription go up every year and metros have the same representation as other member municipalities that are small,” Trollip said.
There was an ongoing debate about how cities were not proportionally represented at Salga according to their membership and subscription fees, he said.
“The exception with the cities network is that all the members are metros except for Umsunduzi, which is probably awaiting metro status. This does make it more uniform, applicable and affordable.”
City manager Johann Mettler, however, urged the committee to consider continuing its membership by joining the council.
“It would be a myth to talk of value for money if one was not part of a structure, because the value for money is what we would determine it to be,” he said.
He said the network had in the past focused on best practices in cities.
“We do not do research on climate change and the impact that would have on the city in the long term. We also don’t do research on other cities.
“For example, how the city of New York deals with port authorities and the development of those kinds of areas.”
He said this was the kind of information SACN member cities shared with each other.
“I would strongly urge this [mayoral committee] to be part of the cities network because we are not an island.
“No city is an island, and if we operate as an island then we will lose out.”
SACN spokeswoman Stacey-Leigh Joseph said terminating membership would mean the city could no longer benefit from a range of studies and research.
Benefits included pooling of resources with other municipalities in the network to conduct research in areas of common interest, at a reduced cost, instead of each municipality conducting its own research at a significantly higher cost.
“By no longer being a member of the SACN, the city might not derive the benefit from the research,” she said.