International Municipal Finance Officers (IMFO) President
IMFO Equity Committee Chairperson
The Auditor General
Representative of Salga
Distinguished Guests
Fellow Delegates
Ladies and gentlemen
Programme Director; let me take this opportunity to thank the Institute of Municipal Finance Officers (IMFO) and their partners -PriceWaterhouse Coopers for inviting us to this important seminar. We believe this dialogue will provide critical insights and fruits we all need as we seek to find adequate answers to the challenges facing women in Local Government Finance and other related professions.
As we are gathered here we have rare and significant opportunity to reflect and engage substantively on a number of critical issues that have an impact on the work of our local sphere of government. I am also sure our levels of participation will reflect full appreciation of the need to improve the performance and posture of our local sphere of governance.
Fellow delegates, we are dealing here with one of the symptoms of much deeper structural development challenges that face our society today. Their history dates back to dark days of colonial and apartheid oppression, and various interventions undertaken since the advent of democracy which began to register the desired impact.
I dare say, now the time is for us to do a thorough introspection and take responsibility for determining our destiny because we are given a unique opportunity in the universe to manifest our great ideas so that future generation would look back with appreciation of the difference we have made in our world. This seminar could not have come at a more opportune time as it comes barely six months after the release of the local government audit reports by the Auditor General (AG) of South Africa.
We would for purposes of this seminar talk briefly about what the AG highlighted in his report as it is related to what we are here about. I hope we are all aware of what is contained in the local government audit report, because if we don’t we do not deserve to call ourselves public servants.
We must for the sake of those who did not read the report and digest what it entails repeat in one line what it says. Only 13 municipalities of 343 municipalities in South Africa received clean audits in the 2010/11 financial period with none of the country’s metros receiving a clean audit. That is a glim picture we are facing as a nation. What does that mean? It means financial management systems in most of our municipalities are as good as non-existent.
What are the consequences of this? With no effective systems in place our municipalities are prone to corruption and fraud. There are many culprits who prey on these weaknesses of the system and loot massive state resources for selfish objectives and greed. Our local government structures that are at the coalface of service delivery end up buckling under extreme financial difficulties and are rendered unable to deliver on their development mandate. This results in unwarranted protests which are accompanied by a new wave of destruction of property that we have seen in many of our communities in recent times. This scenario is untenable for our young democracy and solutions are needed urgently.
In his report the AG highlighted disturbing trends that underpin the slow progress towards clean audits. These include among others lack of consequences for poor performance and transgressions in more than 70 percent of the cases. He also alluded to the fact that officials in key positions at 72% of municipalities were incompetent and 57% of municipalities had shown a slow response to the Auditor-General recommendations.
He said: “The extent of this expenditure and non-compliance by the accounting officers is indicative of an environment where incurring unauthorised and irregular expenditure is a norm and not the exception.
What the AG is saying is further exacerbated by the fact that there is serious passive leadership and governance deficiency in many of our municipalities. Instead of becoming centres of service excellence, some of our municipalities have become battle grounds for accessing state resources, fighting political battles and perpetuating corrupt practices. This taints the image of the entire municipal system among our communities and stakeholders, with much deeper and serious outcomes of poor participation in development interventions aimed at ensuring a better life for all.
What do we need to do then to reverse this anomaly that is eating the sole of our local governance system, costing the state billions of rands that could have been used productively to improve the lives of our people?
The answers are not going to be straight forward and they are not going to come from one player, but all of us. Firstly we need to intensify changes being effected in many of our municipalities at the highest administrative levels and in doing so ensure better affirmation of women.
It is unacceptable that in this day and age that we still have a low representation of women at Senior Management Levels in our municipalities. It is clear that we have not transformed the local sphere of government at an acceptable rate as we have done in the national and provincial spheres of government. Most of us still remember that in 2004 Salga conducted an audit to determine the extent to which women are represented and participate in local government.
The Salga data of 2004 revealed that women were represented the most as deputies than as heads of departments. This picture essentially remains the same, compounded by the fact that even at a political level the gains made between 1994 to 2006 of women representation from 19% to 40% is being reversed while women leadership remains disturbingly low at 3.9% in municipalities as of 2011.
None of us can dispute the fact that since 1994 the ANC led democratic government has passed a number of pieces of legislation to reverse the laws and patriarchal practices of the past that were discriminatory to women. These pieces of legislation sought to mainstream gender in all development interventions as an integral part of the broader transformation agenda of government.
When we consider even the Census finding of Statistics South Africa, the historical patterns of access to power, means of production and economic opportunities as well as poverty still reflects serious disparities between men and women. From whatever angle you look at it from, it boils down to the fact that the struggle for emancipation and empowerment of women must continue. The question we must ask ourselves and answer is:
Does our generation of leaders have the courage and determination to confront today’s challenges and build a great legacy for our future generations of particularly women?
Here we are talking of a legacy where women enjoy a great quality of life without suffering the indignity of poverty, huge inequalities and massive unemployment that are currently largely defined in gender terms.
Numerous audit and research findings including 2011 Businesswomen Association's (BWA -South African Women in Leadership Census) continue to confirm that women remain in the minority when it comes to leadership positions in our society.
The women in leadership census found that women hold only 4.4% of chief executive officer/managing director positions, 5.3% of chairperson positions and 15.8% of all directorships in South Africa. The report indicates that in the country's public service, women hold 35% of all senior managerial positions.
That 35% is still not acceptable as the ANC led government has promulgated great pieces of legislation which are the envy of other countries in terms of promoting gender equality. Our challenge is implementation especially at the administration level, where managers drag their feet and frustrate the policies of the ANC led government.
Addressing an ANC Women’s Conference in 1981, the late President of ANC, OR Tambo affirmed the need to escalate the fight for the liberation of women, and said: “If we are to engage our full potential in pursuit of revolutionary goals then, as revolutionaries we should stop pretending that women in our movement have the same opportunities as men.”
We are glad that after robust debates by the Women’s League the 53rd National Conference of the ANC agreed that 50:50 gender representations across the public and private sectors as well as in civil society must be legislated appropriately.
The conference said on the 50:50 gender representations, emphasis should now be placed on 50% representation for women at SMS levels to ensure that they are represented in key decision making levels in the public service.
The 53rd conference also agreed that Women empowerment programs need to be intensified to ensure that women are ready to move forward and also that they are competent and effective on the levels where they are employed. It endorsed a decision to “promote and support the leadership education and training across various sectors – including academia, for women in community formations, business and government management positions to sustain the proceeds of gender equity and equality initiatives.”
Ladies and gentlemen
The election of Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma as the first woman chairperson of the African Union Commission heralded not only the fruition of women’s struggles throughout our continent but the beginning of a new phase of active involvement and participation of women in shaping the political and economic destiny of Africa.
The views and voices of women will now be better heard, including on issues of how to respond decisively to the challenges facing our local government system. We need to demonstrate a strong sense of purpose to ensure that opportunities are opened for women to participate robustly and take their rightful place in leading the local sphere of government.
We owe it to both sung and unsung heroines of past generations as well as our current and future generations of women to use our turn in leadership to build a real non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa where women enjoy a great quality of life. Let us rise to this challenge and support each other to achieve our noble cause.
This struggle is not going to be easy; it will need resilience and strong-willed women who will not bow even under extreme pressures in the contested terrain of local government.
At all times when the going gets tough we should remind ourselves that ours is the struggle for nation building not individual glory. We should draw inspiration from the words of Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Wangari Maathai she se said: “Those of us who have been privileged to receive education, skills, and experiences and even power must be role models for the next generation of leadership.”
May your deliberations help advance our march to full women emancipation and empowerment.
I thank you
