Councils ‘pay the price’ for cadre deployment

Municipalities’ woes can be attributed to lack of qualified people, says political analyst

CADRE deployment must be abandoned if municipalities are to ensure they are capable and financially sound, a political analyst said.

Political analyst Dr Ntsikelelo Breakfast said most of the problems with municipalities could be put down to the lack of qualified people being chosen by their parties to run them.

“Local government is a very important sphere of government as it is in the front line of service delivery and yet year-in and year-out many municipalities get bad audits. The answer is to put qualified people on councils and to stop the current practice of cadre deployment. Cadres are used mainly to dish out patronage,” said Breakfast.

“We must be honest and say that the ANC are particularly guilty here. When you look at most of the DA-run municipalities in the Western Cape they get good audits. Of course this is not to say that good audits are proof of good service delivery,” said Breakfast.

“Also the administration of municipalities should never be politicised. These are professionals and should not be appointed for their political credentials. Administrators need to stand their ground against political influence of their decisions on things such as tenders, as they are expected to by law,” said Breakfast.

Breakfast was speaking as the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and SA Local Government

Association (Salga) launched this year’s local government week, themed “Ensuring Capable and Financially Sound Municipalities”.

In his speech, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said: “Politicians are becoming increasingly involved in the affairs of municipalities.

“The ultimate responsibility of ensuring good financial management in municipalities lies with its administration and council. We are working very hard to assist municipalities in ensuring that their budgets are funded and that they stop spending money they don’t have.”

Salga president Thembi Nkadimeng spoke on the topic of building a coherent approach to addressing the interlinked and interdependent challenges facing local government.

“As it relates to debts owed to municipalities, it is a well-known fact that an average of 59% of municipal debts are not recoverable. In 55 municipalities more than 80% cannot be recovered, and debt collection at 99 municipalities was more than 90 days,” said Nkadimeng.

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma said the event was taking place under unprecedented conditions owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“This has compounded the dire financial state of municipalities. However, this is not the time for despair, rather an opportune moment to reshape municipal finances and local economies broadly,” she said.

“This is not the time for despair but to reshape municipal finances Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE MINISTER