Programme Director
The Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) KwaZulu-Natal and members of the Portfolio committee
The deputy mayor of eThekwini as our host today
All councillors present
Municipal Managers;
Government and all municipal officials present
Honoured guests
Members of the media
All protocol observed
As we greet all present here this morning, we wish also to say congratulations particularly to the newly elected mayors, deputy mayors and speakers. We would like to welcome you and the municipal managers to this third phase of democratically established local government.
We look at you as a new kid on the new block. And so we hope that everything that will emerge out of this era and from your efforts as developmental cadres will indeed equally breathe new life to the aspirations of a better life for our people.
It is with great pleasure indeed that we converge here today, on this very momentous occasion. Personally and in my capacity as a representative of the Provincial Government of KwaZulu-Natal, it is crucial that I interface with you, especially as we set foot on yet another important era in this critical sphere of our government. But I also believe that for all of you in your respective municipal spaces, this occasion becomes very important and the ideas we will share here today will literally help all of us carve a righteous way towards ensuring that service delivery in our province becomes a reality.
Preface
Ladies and gentlemen, the year 1996 marked a very significant milestone in the development of our democracy. For, this was the time when we held the first local government elections in our country. Indeed, this was a practical step at creating and institutionalising a cadre of development activists whose sole purpose was to breathe life to the promises contained in our Constitution.
From 1996 to today, our system of local government has undergone many years of challenges. Sort of like the biological process of metamorphosis, if you will.
And significantly, in the year 2000, we could safely say that, that was the period when we sealed off that process of establishing local government as we then had the first democratically formulated wall-to-wall municipalities.
We will all agree now that out of the rollercoaster ride that has defined our local government in the past, a new era is in the making. This is a new time, from which an effective, efficient, accountable and developmental local government is emerging. Many among us who have been following the transformation of the local sphere of our governance will agree that, unlike earlier on, our local governance system is beginning to experience an important evolution - away from the problems of the past, into the possibility of a better and prosperous future.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have just gone through a successful, free and fair election process where the people of our province once again have given this government a clear mandate to take this system of local government forward and, in more practical terms than ever before, change the lives of the people of KwaZulu-Natal for the better - for evermore.
Notably, this latest election was heralded by a series of public demonstrations as our people clearly vented their anger for what was admittedly a case of shoddy workmanship on the part of our municipalities who were supposed to be the leaders in the implementation of service delivery.
Our people took to the polls amid a great deal of resentment, uncertainty, distrust, hopelessness, apathy – all which was levelled at us as the leadership, owing to our weaknesses in keeping our promise of delivering a good service to our people.
Thus this new-born era of local government becomes a critical moment because we have since learnt many lessons and identified gaps that exist in our system. I feel now I can confidently say that we are now well positioned to take the challenge and deliver on the mandate we are given by this Province and the country at large.
Turnaround strategy
Emanating from the service delivery protests, we have developed with all municipalities a turn-around strategy, which, in simple terms, tells us that we should do things differently.
The turn-around strategy is a multi-pronged manner in which we are determined to eliminate the variety of ills that led us to reach that chaotic state of affairs that has characterised our municipalities recently.
The year 2010 has marked the anniversary of 10 years of democratic local government. And despite significant gains, the assessment conducted by government in 2009 has shown that there are many municipalities that are in deep distress. This distress refers to their faltering ability to deliver services, to manage their institutions, and even in empowering public engagement with communities on any challenges that might be in existence. In referencing the steps to be taken to “do things differently” in local government, as government, we have identified a progressive series of inter-governmental initiatives to turn the tide in local government ahead of the year 2014.
Improved local government
Out of the 12 key areas of focus for government, area number 9, which is referred to as Outcome 9, has, as its overarching goal, a responsive, accountable, effective and efficient local government system.
Accordingly, as government, we have undertaken to achieve the vision of Outcome nine through meeting the following indicators:
- Develop a more rigorous, data driven and detailed segmentation of municipalities that better reflect the varied and capacities and contexts within municipalities and lays the basis for a differentiated approach to municipal financing, planning and support. A “differentiated approach” suggests that we have to focus our support to municipalities on the understanding that the challenges before them are generally unique to each one of them.
- We have also committed ourselves to ensuring improved access to essential services.
- We will initiate ward‐based programmes to sustain livelihoods in our communities.
- Contribute to the achievement of sustainable human settlements and quality neighbourhoods.
- Strengthen participatory governance.
- Strengthen the administrative and financial capability of municipalities.
- Address coordination problems and strengthen cross‐departmental initiatives.
The approach to managing local government support and intervention must have a greater and more sustainable impact than previous interventions such as Project Consolidate and the Five‐Year Strategic Agenda. Today, we are introducing Mr… who will work with all of us to coordinate all efforts to achieve the abovementioned goals.
As we regroup ourselves in municipalities as a force to be reckoned with in the implementation of realistic service delivery, our ammunition should be in the form of an undertaking to reconstitute the principle of becoming even more accountable in our business, and we need to ensure the involvement of ordinary people and communities in turning the tide against inefficiency in local government. This, combined with the concept of differentiated support as I have indicated, will assist us in carrying out our mandate of creating a better life for all.
Ladies and gentlemen, you ought to really set a clear direction with regard to the aforementioned seven issues in terms of outputs and targets, and roles and responsibilities, and if we approach the issue of improving service delivery in this formula, then clearly we will have a dramatic effect on the achievement of our vision.
Public participation
President JG Zuma indicated in his 2010 State of the Nation Address that he would work hard to build a strong developmental state, which responds to the needs and aspirations of the people, and which works “faster, harder and smarter”.
Consequently, cabinet has undertaken to improve the manner in which, as government, we provide services to the people. This is in terms of Outcome 12, which is focused on creating an effective, efficient and developmental public service that involves enhanced public participation.
As local government, we are expected to ensure that we are effective and efficient in the manner in which we carry out our mandate of service delivery to our people.
Truth be told, the outputs contained in terms of Outcome nine cannot be achieved without the creation of an effective, efficient and people driven local government machinery.
Ladies and gentlemen, we would like to place increased emphasis on the urgent need to establish new ward committees in municipalities. Ward committees should be set up as a matter of urgency because it is at that level that this government can give meaning to the maxim that the “people shall govern”, or to the democratic culture of public participation in decision making. Through enhanced participation of our people in governance, this emerging culture of public protests against a democratically elected government will be eliminated because people resolve to take out to the streets out of frustration because there is no platform to discuss with elected leadership their concerns and views.
We are pleased that for most municipalities, the policy on ward committee election has been adopted by council; the stakeholder register has also been compiled through aid by CDWs and Municipal Public Participation staff, which will assist the council during the election. We continue to emphasise that ward committees ought to consist of all pertinent sectors in each municipality because we don’t want to leave any member of the communities under-represented on council.
We are pleased that most municipalities have provided us with dates for their elections as we had submitted a circular to all of you advising of the need to furnish us with your preferred dates for the elections.
Once the elections have been held, it would be imperative that each municipality hosts a launch function to introduce the newly elected ward committee members to the community. The members will also sign an oath of commitment to a code of conduct and to servicing the community.
We are putting emphasis on ensuring that these people become more accountable as they conduct themselves on behalf of our people. The names of the members shall be submitted to Cogta along with the signed oath by each members, which will be captured in a database system. Local Government Seta-accredited training material has been developed, and a skills audit shall be reviewed regularly, the idea being to ensure that these community representatives are adequately empowered to carry out their mandate.
We will ensure that CDWs and Youth Ambassadors from the Premier’s Department are involved in monitoring the implementation plan of ward committees generally and their skilling in particular.
Audit issued
Ladies and gentlemen, it is only fair to note that many of our municipalities are still grappling with many challenges such as addressing significant levels of service delivery backlogs; attending to the infrastructure backlogs including the maintenance of the ageing infrastructure.
But another major challenge is overcoming the problems caused by the scarcity of financial management skills. As the Provincial Government, we have committed to provide necessary support, including strengthening our efforts to encourage increased support by bodies such as the Institute of Municipal Finance Management, Salga and KwaNaloga, among others, so that we can then find ways to strengthen our capacity and skills.
Ladies and gentlemen, we are optimistic about the fact that the Auditor-General has in the past two financial years painted a more positive picture about your performance in terms of financial, administrative and governance accountability in municipalities.
Obviously, this trend is good news because it gives us hope that tomorrow may be better if we focus on the improvements that we make and which subsequently yield positive results as shown through the declining negative audit opinions and disclaimers.
However, even though some of you may not have been in the positions that you have been elected to recently, all the province’s 61 municipalities have committed to Operation Clean Audit 2014. This means that you have inherited a municipality that has taken an oath that commits to the declaration that we will work each day to ensure that we reach the destination of completely clean audits by 2014.
This means that all of us have committed ourselves to be crusaders of good governance. Our Clean Audit goals are an objective that we must achieve. We have since introduced a phased-in approach, which will lead us to our clean audit destination. By the end of this 2011/12 financial year, we must have eradicated qualified audits, adverse and disclaimer opinions. We can no longer justify disclaimers and adverse audit opinions.
For these goals to be realized, it is imperative that we have municipal councils that perform effective oversight.This means that councillors have to ensure that they address internal control weaknesses, non-compliance and certain governance matters, such as the effectiveness of internal audit units and audit committees. Colleagues, for this to happen, we have to ensure our books are clean, annual reports are meaningful and compliant with legislation and that we have full public engagement in these processes.
Our department, through its Municipal Support business unit, has consistently provided feedback to municipalities regarding aspects of non-compliance in respect of financial management generally as well as, particularly, in respect of the annual report, audit report and responses received from municipalities to the audit report. Despite this aid, we have still continuously witnessed non-compliance. I have been getting reports suggesting that among the contributory reasons that lead to poor fiscal management and accountability in our municipalities is the fact that senior administrators in municipalities do not always welcome the support and advice from our department.
Planning - NEW IDPs
We wish to assure you that when we offer support to municipalities, it is in the first place because, constitutionally, we are mandated to do so and, secondly, it is because we are committed to the same goals of creating municipalities that work better and improve the lives of our communities.
In order to provide necessary support in respect to planning around service delivery in your municipalities, our department was recently involved with you in putting together freshly refined IDPs. In view of the recent Local Government Elections and the subsequent changes in the political leadership in Municipalities, we identified a need for district-wide IDP refinement sessions across the Province to inform Councillors and municipal staff on the status of the IDP and the related amendment process.
A need for such sessions was amplified by a sense that there were some new councillors who were expressing dissatisfaction about endorsing IDPs that they had not been part of their preparation process. Furthermore, new councils may have, during the election process, received new and urgent mandates, which must be accommodated in the municipal 2011/12 budgets, which budgets are legally empowered by the 2011/12 reviewed IDPs.
As the department, we conducted these sessions with you from 21 to 30 June 2011 in all our 10 districts. The primary objective of the sessions was to:
- ·Clarify the Legal Requirements with regard to amendment of existing IDPs.
- Present options that are available for municipalities given the recent changes in political mandates.
- Advise new Councils about statutory obligations and flexibilities of IDPs;
- Advise new councils about existing IDP (and Budget) amendment procedures.
- Facilitate identification of glaring priorities that justify immediate amendment of the 2011/12 IDP and budget.
We appreciate your interest in these sessions, which was evidenced by the fact that a resounding 52 of our Municipalities participated in the sessions, with the profile of attendance including 33 Mayors and deputy Mayors; 19 Speakers and Exco Members; 32 Ordinary Councillors; eight Municipal Managers; 89 Other Municipal Officials Today, we can proudly announce that 59 out of 61 Municipalities have met the deadline of adopting their Reviewed IDPs by 30 June 2011. I trust that the remaining two municipalities will be adopting very soon although they have already missed the compliance deadline.
In this breath, we wish to also emphasise that you are now required to start the process of developing your own five-year plan, which should last for the duration of your term of office. I encourage you to ensure that your new plan of action takes full cognisance of the KZN Provincial Growth and Development Strategy as developed by our Provincial Planning Commission. Your visioning and planning should also align with the National Diagnostic Report and other base reports that are produced by our National Planning Commission.
Synergies, peer review and partnerships
Colleagues, we will continue to participate in the Premier’s Coordinating Forum. This forum allows us to get together and review our performance as the sphere of local government in the province, and it creates opportunities for sharing ideas. This platform will also assist in enhancing intergovernmental relations, particularly between District Municipalities and local municipalities. However, the Districts and their family of municipalities should develop their own similar exercises to strengthen coordination, particularly around cross-municipal issues such as the provision of water by the Districts to the local municipalities.
In the same breath, we will also do well to facilitate the establishment of twinning arrangements. But we wish for these agreements to be forged more within the province as this will allow for enhanced synergistic relations across the sphere of local government in KwaZulu-Natal. As the Department, we will continue to interface with you and discuss any challenges we might face. We will, additionally, hold Joint-Excos in all the District Municipalities, discussing issues with local municipalities and engaging also with amakhosi from the respective municipalities.
Traditional leadership – TC elections
Ladies and gentlemen, this democratic government continues to enhance our Institution of Traditional Leadership. And we have said as the Province that we want our new breed of councillors to ensure that this key stakeholder is afforded a right royal reverence as we continue to work with amakhosi to speed up service delivery and develop stronger, safer and healthier communities.
With that said, we have also undertaken to democratise the Institution of Traditional Leadership. Soon, we will partner with the IEC and hold the elections of Traditional Councils across the province. We are communicating with the public to create awareness on this critical matter as we want our people to elect 40% of the members of these Councils. The other 60% will be the prerogative of each inkosi yesizwe.
We would like municipal leadership to help ensure that these councils operate without any hurdles as soon as they have been elected. As the Province, we are continuing with our efforts to provide tools of trade for this institution to operate effectively.
Delimitation of boundaries
Programme Director, we wish also to share with the elected municipal leadership and management on the critical issue of our municipal boundaries.
We are being assured by the Demarcation Board that all is on track, and a circular advising on how the process is expected to unfold has been circulated to us as well as to all municipalities through municipal managers. Municipal Managers will have to advise all councillors, and other stakeholders in their municipal areas such as ward committees, traditional leaders, community development workers, etc, through an extensive and wide-reaching process.
Indeed, there are many wishes, ideas and dreams around the issue of municipal boundaries. However, we wish to emphasise that the Board is an independent body operating in terms of our Constitution, and should be allowed to carry out its responsibility without any prejudice.
In terms of the current constitutional and legal framework, the next local government elections will only be held in 2016, following the National and Provincial elections which are due in 2014. This requires that all changes to municipal boundaries need to be finalised prior the National and Provincial elections so that the national voters’ roll can be segmented according to confirmed and final municipal boundaries.
This means that all the changes to municipal boundaries must be completed at the beginning of 2013. At this stage, the Board will start reviewing municipal boundaries again, and the intention will be to finalise all changes to municipal boundaries by around May 2013, before wards will be delimited for the 2016 local elections.
In broad terms, this last part of 2011 will involve all stakeholders making inputs to the Board and the Board mapping out the boundaries in terms of those suggestions. This will be a really drafting stage as the Board will still go back to municipalities to interface with stakeholders on the applicability of this first draft.
Conclusion
Programme Director, the recent election - free and fair as it may have been - has, however, shown all of us that the votes that our people give to political parties shall never be a blank cheque by which those who govern can make of them as they please. As our democracy matures, our people’s vigilance is increasing and they are becoming more assertive about the things they want and need. This means that our state of readiness to respond to their demands has got to be above reproach. We need a local government that is professional, delivery driven and free of all the ills as we have witnessed in the past.
This third era of democratic local government presents us with an opportunity to do things differently to ensure faster change in our communities. Our approach for the new term will be focused on the new way of doing things.
As the new municipal leadership, you will be judged on whether your municipality is seen to be taking stern action to stem any elements of maladministration, corruption, fraud, laziness and a lack of strong oversight by councillors.
In this era of action and more action, as a mayor, deputy mayor, speaker and municipal manager and chief financial officer, you ought to preside over a municipality that is committed to accelerating the provision of water and electricity to our people. All the commitments we have made as the provincial government to launch projects aimed at providing infrastructure for these services can only find true expression in the efforts that you make in your municipal spaces to take the work further and into the people’s homes.
Let us work harder to ensure that our province becomes the pioneer in ensuring that every household – from Umzimkhulu to Manguzi, from Ilembe to Ukhahlamba to Edumbe – does indeed boast clean running water and electricity.
We wish all of you, especially the newly elected leadership, nothing but success in your work. And your success will only be measured through the number of homes that have water, electricity, roads, among other needs of our people.
Working together, we can help KwaZulu-Natal to move South Africa forward.
Thank you.
