Ailing municipalities benefit from government interventions
Experts are being deployed to distressed and dysfunctional municipalities to help them turn the corner
In March this year, Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) Minister Dr Zweli Mkhize announced that 55 municipalities were dysfunctional and that urgent intervention was needed.
By May – when the Minister tabled his Budget Vote in Parliament – the number had gone up to 87.
In some instances, the dysfunctional or non-viable municipalities faced structural and systemic challenges, while others were being dragged down by human error, incompetence and corruption.
The Auditor-General Kimi Makwetu's report on municipalities for the financial year 2016/17, released a few days after the Minister's Budget Vote speech, painted an equally bleak picture, with most municipalities regressing on their audit outcomes.
Makwetu, among others, also flagged the increase in irregular expenditure and stressed that interventions were needed in struggling municipalities.
The outcome of the Auditor-General's report on municipalities was also a reflection of the first year following the 2016 local government elections – during which the redemarcation of municipal borders led to the number of municipalities being reduced from 278 to 257.
This also meant that services were stretched beyond the previous “boundaries of municipalities which were defined in terms of a concrete rates base that enabled them to raise their own revenue”, the Minister said at the time of his Budget Vote speech.
Support for distressed municipalities
Following his announcement, Minister Mkhize deployed 81 new engineers, town planners and project managers, among many other experts, with the aim of helping distressed and dysfunctional municipalities turn the corner.
CoGTA also announced it would roll–out an intervention programme focusing on three areas: governance and administration, service delivery and infrastructure, and financial management.
In a wide-ranging interview with PSM at his parliamentary office in Cape Town, the Minister said
more help is on its way to enable municipalities to return to being self-sustainable.
“We also are focusing on service and infrastructure delivery,” he said, explaining that CoGTA's Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA) appointed 81 technical experts and engineers, including civil, electrical and water; project managers; contract managers; construction managers and regional town planners.
“We spread them across the municipalities where there was a shortfall.”
He said CoGTA found that only 55 municipalities had engineers. Now the newly–appointed engineers have been deployed mainly to district municipalities so that they can oversee the smaller local municipalities.
“Now we are going to be hiring an additional 75 or more experts and then we are going to reinforce all of those areas.
“The adverts are out and, of course, some more are planned. In fact, about 100 people were absorbed into the structure of the MISA alone and many of these will be sent into the field.”
Positive results
He added that improvements have already been seen in areas that have benefited from CoGTA's interventions.
The Minister recently took to the road to assess the state of affairs at affected municipalities and was pleased that some progress has been made.
He added that interventions have been instituted under Section 139 of the Constitution and through Section 137 of the Municipal Finance Management Act.
“On the issues of governance, we have got very strong and strict processes in place now… if there is anyone who is appointed, they need to report to the Minister [and] municipal managers. [They] must be cleared [to ensure that] they don't fall into the database of those who should not be allowed back because of previous fraud and corruption, and that their qualifications are also acceptable and appropriate. Where the qualifications are not appropriate, then they must get a waiver signed by the Minister and we are very rigorous with that process as well.”
Minister Mkhize said a memorandum of understanding has been signed with National Treasury to collectively tackle issues of financial recovery. He added that a basic revenue-generating plan has been formulated for struggling municipalities.
“We have already ensured that municipalities don't adopt unfunded budgets by ensuring that the budgets they adopt are cashbacked and checked by National Treasury and CoGTA,” he said.
Infrastructure and service delivery
The Minister touched on a few highlights relating to infrastructure and service delivery. In Makhanda [formerly Grahamstown], for example, work is being done to refurbish roads and the sewerage system.In Lekwa, engineers have created reservoirs to absorb any sewerage spillage.He added that engineers have created step-up pumps to push the sewage to the central processing plant.
“We have also been to Mfuleni where we have got the private sector working with us to repair and maintain sewage plants.”
He added that this led to talks about raising additional money to replace existing pumps with betterperforming, more modern ones.
“If you go to Madibeng and many other of the municipalities under our wing, you will see that they have already started clearing the roads and repairing potholes.”
Bolstering rural economies
The Minister added that he has held talks with the National House of Traditional Leaders to discuss how support can be given to rural development, especially through agriculture.
With regards to agriculture, CoGTA has discussed with
various departments the feasibility of establishing support centres in every district, which will provide support to traditional communities wanting to develop their agricultural footprints.
“We have had a bit of progress on that issue,” he said.
Discussions have also been held with the Department of Small Business Development and the Department of Trade and Industry and “we have raised the issues of township economies, village economies and the integration of the rural economy into the mainstream,” he said.
Eskom debt recommendations
The Minister said the advisory panel of experts appointed by the Inter-Ministerial Task Team on Electricity Reticulation and Distribution to provide advice and legal clarity on the constitutional authority for electricity reticulation, has presented its report to joint clusters in Cabinet.
He said on the issue of the mandate of energy generation, distribution, supply and reticulation between the municipality and Eskom, where the Constitution gives that authority to the municipality, there were discussions on the way forward.
On correcting the huge debt owed by municipalities to Eskom – which at the end of May 2018 stood at R14.319 billion– he said talks were under way on ways to restructure the debt and put in place mechanisms to ensure improved revenue collection systems. One of the things looked at was conventional metering versus pre-paid meters.
“There is a huge focus on recreating the culture of payment for services amongst communities,” he said.
Achieving ideal municipalities
The Minister said that to avert service delivery protests, public servants should aim to be servants of change to ensure that an ideal municipality – one where there is good governance, which can generate its own revenue and where corruption can be uprooted – is realised.
He added the basics – fixing potholes, streetlights and adequate waste management, among others – should be addressed.
“Civil servants must know that they are in service; effectively, they are there to serve, therefore they must be respectful to the community.They must be responsive and accountable and they must be transparent in the way that they do things so that people know that the municipality and its systems are dependable and predictable.
“They must be open, they must be able to explain things that the communities are concerned about and they must also be able to explain what they cannot do so that there is always a clear understanding between the two sides – the municipal team and the community.This will help prevent people acting on the basis of ignorance or feeling neglected or ignored.That is what my advice would be – they are employed to think, to plan, to implement and serve,” he said.