Fix service delivery to boost economic activity
IF SOUTH AFRICA is to address the worsening unemployment trend and increase economic activity, it must first address service delivery at the local government level.
However, it is here, at the most basic level of service delivery, that the situation is the worst.
If the KwaDukuza Municipality cannot get right something as basic as the street lights to come on at night and go off at daybreak – the opposite of which is in operation in Shakaskraal – what hope is there of it addressing the larger issues?
The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, in its State of the Government report submitted to the Cabinet last year, painted a picture of a broken local government system.
It labelled just 16 of the national total of 257 municipalities “stable”, with the vast majority unable to fulfil their mandate to provide basic services – water, sanitation, housing and power – to their citizens.
The number of protests due to the lack of service delivery taking place over the past several years, allied to the number of municipalities in crisis, and regular auditor-general reports, all also indicate that municipalities are regressing.
Recently, our state capital, the City of Tshwane, was placed under administration due to instability, while the KwaZulu-Natal capital, Pietermaritzburg, had its “City of Choice” tag altered to “City of Filth” for the state of its CBD.
Both cases indicate the urgent need for reform in the management of municipalities.
A shortage of good management is the major cause of municipalities failing to perform, and this is compounded by political interference in recruitment that ensures that poorly suited individuals are hired in strategic positions.
In Durban, residents in the city centre must contend with bulk water infrastructure upgrades lasting more than a year, leaving behind rubble that not only presents an eyesore, but also appears to be affecting business, and all the municipality can offer is a ham-fisted apology.
Shakaskraal residents are fortunate that their major problems seem to be with street lights and potholes, and some crime. Not too bad, compared with other towns and cities that have raw sewage running through the streets, and only intermittent water and electricity supplies.
But there’s not much going for it, either.
Having once been part of the Royal Military homestead of King Shaka, the town of Shakaskraal and its people could be the centre or part of a tourism hub based on the life of its illustrious former resident, rather than languishing in its current going-nowhere-slowly mediocrity, if somebody at the helm of the municipality had the vision and the nous to develop the concept.
With the eThekwini draft budget proposing tariff increases on water (5.9% for residential use and 9% for business use), electricity (8.61%), sanitation (5.9% for residential and 9% for business use) and refuse removal, the city’s business and residential customers have a legitimate expectation of adequate, timeous service delivery in return for their money.