M Mabuyakhulu: Institute for Local Government Management
Conference

16 August 2006

Programme Director,
The President of the Institute for Local Government Management of South
Africa,
Heads of departments present,
Municipal managers present,
Local government practitioners,
Local government experts present,
Distinguished guests,
Ladies and gentlemen,

It is indeed my pleasure to make a few remarks to this important body of our
citizenry attending this august conference on local government. Over the past
twelve years of our democracy, the local government sphere has proven itself as
a credible leader of our democracy’s stated objective to create a South Africa
characterised by equality, justice and prosperity.

Part of the success of this tier of government is attributable to the
sterling work done by administrators who have transformed our municipalities
from structures that did not work for the people to structures that are the
hope for the people of our country. I am personally pleased to be in the midst
of women and men who ensure that our developmental wheels keep turning.

Programme Director, we are aware that occasions like this one are not
occasions for long speeches but are aimed at ensuring that delegates attending
this conference sit back and relax, enjoy the hospitality of our province and,
in this relaxed atmosphere, exchange ideas on how best we can, both as
individuals and as a collective, deliver on the mandate that the history of our
country has placed on our shoulders. I will therefore not deliver a long speech
but emphasise and re-affirm that which has been said by colleagues who
addressed you earlier today.

What is our mandate as local government role-players, practitioners and
stakeholders?

The 1998 White Paper on Local Government answers this question succinctly.
It says:

“Local government has a critical role to play in consolidating our new
democracy, and each councillor, each official, and each citizen is tasked with
making their contribution in the areas where they live”.

I hope that part of the deliberations of this ILGM conference is to assess
how much you, as managers and role-players in local government, are
contributing, where you live, in using local government to consolidate our
democracy. Indeed we would have missed a valuable opportunity if we cannot find
time, during this conference, to ask ourselves how we have, both as individuals
and as a collective, contributed to making ordinary citizens realise the
benefits of a democratic order that we now enjoy.

We could not have come this far had it not been for the dedication of men
and women that have assembled here today. This conference is an opportunity not
only to look at the challenges that face our municipalities but also to
celebrate the achievements that we have attained so far.

The 284 municipalities that we have, could not have dealt with the
challenges that they faced when they were established if it was not for the
commitment that you, as local government practitioners, showed throughout the
past eleven years. It is important to always remember where we come from
because that will tell us how far we have progressed and also show us areas of
weakness.

The past era of local government has proven to be the most challenging one,
but we have learned valuable lessons and we now stand on a new threshold. Our
system of local government is experiencing an important era away from the
problems of the past into the possibility of a prosperous future; the day ahead
is filled with hope and opportunity.

Our country is still committed to ensuring that we keep the commitment that
we made to the people that municipalities shall be made terrains of growth and
development. The vision that is enshrined in the Local Government White Paper
is always relevant and must guide us in ensuring that we attain our goal of
creating a developmental local government. A developmental local government is
a government that plans, consults, decides, and implements its decisions.

We have thus in pursuit of this objective resolved as government that this
new term of local government must result in a more sustainable system, with
reliable service delivery and a significant improvement in municipal
performance. Our focus in the new term of local government is to accelerate
service delivery and ensure stability and sustainability in our system of local
government. The benchmark we have set for this phase is to have effectively
functioning municipalities that are corruption-free, that have prudent
financial management and are financially viable. We want municipalities that
pay serious attention to the maintenance and provision of services such as
water, electricity, roads etc.

We want all our municipalities in this new era to have sound Local Economic
Development (LED) plans. The period between 2006 and 2011 should be
characterised by municipalities that are rooted in community participation and
are accountable to the people they serve to deepen local democracy. As leaders
and critical role-players in local government, we have a moral and a
revolutionary obligation to ensure that we breathe life to these
objectives.

As part of ensuring stability in our local government, on 1 August 2006, the
national Department of Provincial and Local Government gazetted a set of
regulations created to address some of the publicised concerns about the
remuneration of municipal managers and those managers who report directly to
them. These concerns may have been misguided in most circumstances; however,
the people of South Africa have a reasonable expectation from the institutions
that are created to serve them. While practical reality on the ground may point
to different causes of problems faced by different municipal administrative
bodies, there is general agreement that in order to fix a bigger problem,
senior leaders of our municipalities need to act decisively but act within the
law. They should do this driven by the call in the White Paper that urges all
of us to use local government to consolidate our democracy and, might one add,
ensure the development and growth of our people.

We, therefore, view this intervention by the national Minister of Provincial
and Local Government, as one that is intended to help us improve the capacity
of local government to deliver on its mandate, particularly on the
administrative side. It is an instrument which will help municipalities recruit
competent administrators, develop them and be able to retain them.

The regulations set out how the performance of municipal managers will be
uniformly directed and monitored. They address the job description, employment
contract, as well as the performance agreement that is entered into between
respective municipalities, municipal managers and managers directly accountable
to municipal managers. The job description sets out the main accountabilities
and inherent job requirements; the employment contract provides the terms of
employment including regulating the performance bonuses, while the performance
agreement provides assurance to the municipal council of what can and should be
expected from their senior managers.

We hope that by closely matching the performance targets of municipal
managers to the municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs), there will be an
improvement in the way in which our municipalities are managed. I trust that
all of us gathered here will familiarise ourselves with these new regulations
because they are critical in restoring the confidence of our people to our
system of local governance.

All these decisions that have been arrived at with regard to the performance
of heads of municipal administration have been mainly orchestrated by the
desire to achieve the goal of a better life for all that is created in
consultation with the masses of our people.

Government’s commitment to public participation

This government is committed to a form of participation which is genuinely
empowering, and not token consultation or manipulation. This involves a range
of activities including creating democratic representative structures (ward
committees), assisting those structures to plan at a local level
(community-based planning), to implement and monitor those plans using a range
of working groups, supporting community-based services, and to support these
local structures through a cadre of community development workers. We must
also, in the first instance, improve the accountability of ward and municipal
structures to each other and to the communities they serve, as well as, in the
second instance, improving the linkages between provincial and national
departments to their clients, and so to service delivery and policy.

Regrettably, citizens do not always play their role as constant monitors of
how our leaders perform during their term of office. As organised civil society
there is a tendency to either lose focus of what they really expect our
government to do, or are too scattered to speak with a noticeable and loud
enough voice to be taken seriously. It is for these reasons that we need to
always revisit the role of civil society in between elections, especially with
regard to influencing public policy. By so doing we will be able to make
inferences of what constitutes a well functioning municipality and active
citizenry.

Role of civil society

The role of civil society in policy making has always been a key question in
addressing the state of democratic consolidation. Theoreticians and
practitioners alike grapple with the question of to what extent should space be
created for the public to interact with the government at policy making
level.

It is important to identify convergence, complementation possibilities and
co-ordinate as well as document such work among development agencies.
Particularly with respect to developing and sustaining need-based initiatives,
promoting awareness and rights of citizens, civil society organisations have a
crucial role to play.

It is important to discuss development, participatory and representative
democracy as drivers for public participation in policy making and subsequent
implementation.

Representative democracy is based on the principle that representatives must
answer to the mandate which citizens have given them. This covers the entire
range of public policies, both in the phase of elaboration and in their
implementation. The local government Integrated Development Planning approach
should be driven by citizens. They must participate, within a set framework, in
setting priorities for the agenda, in the design and distribution of resources,
and in the evaluation of achievements. If the priorities on the agenda for
development are set in a participatory fashion and mechanisms for transparency
and accountability are created, then there is authentic participation. A well
functioning municipality has its citizens at the centre of planning and
implementation for development.

If we agree that citizens have a role in making and keeping our public
representatives and institution in line with the wishes of the majority, and we
also agree that as individuals, citizens are too weak to engage the state
machinery, therefore citizens need to act as a collective so to ensure that the
gains they make are for the population not for individuals. These organised and
unorganised citizens should develop a partnership with a collective of elected
representatives, namely the councils, as well as the people responsible for the
articulation and implementation of councils’ decisions, the administration.
Adversity, competition, and political point scoring should be replaced by
co-operation, partnerships, empathy, and responsiveness to people’s needs.

Emphasis on delivery and service

It is time that service rather than delivery becomes the driver for a
developmental local government. Delivery alone is not enough if it is not a
needs and quality-centred service to the people. The quality of our democracy
will largely be determined by the extent to which the institutions that we have
created are changing the lives of our people for the better.

A million houses per decade are not enough if half of them are going to show
cracks within five years. The managers assembled here have a duty to put
service back into delivery. The tarring of roads is a good thing, but potholes
after a drizzle is also not good. Elimination of buckets system is also a good
thing, but the sewerage network must be maintained, otherwise our streets will
always be overflowing with sewerage. These development challenges cannot be
overcome if the people at the helm of administration are not committed to
addressing them.

Municipal administrators and officials

Earlier in this address I stated that we have a revolutionary obligation to
ensure that the injunction contained in the White Paper is carried out.
Municipal officials in general and municipal managers in particular occupy the
forward trenches in the campaign to ensure that municipalities fulfil the hope
that they engender in our people. We are the development cadres who are
entrusted with the duty of ensuring that this democracy, in a tangible manner,
alters the lives of our people for the better. We therefore, need to be
critical and ponder the following questions:

* “Have we created the necessary conditions within our municipalities to
carry out this mandate?”
* “Do we possess the necessary tools to ensure that municipalities indeed help
to consolidate our democracy?”
* “Have we initiated sufficient measures to ensure that indeed we can deal with
any situation that this constantly-evolving field we operate in can throw at
us?”

These, we think, are some of the questions that this conference should aim
to address. We should admit that some of the curves and hurdles we have had to
negotiate are not necessarily as a result of matters beyond our control.
Sometimes we have to address crises that stem from improper planning, crises
that are as a result of not being well-versed with policies and regulations
that govern local government. We also experience difficulties because we have
not adopted some standard corporate strategies like monitoring and evaluation
or research and development.

In this second era of local government, where people’s expectations are
doubled, we need innovative, strategic, efficient and skilled municipal
officials. We need municipal officials and managers who see themselves and
indeed act as public servants. We need enablers and not stumbling blocks. From
this conference, I am convinced will emerge, re-enthused municipal officials
whose single objective is to consolidate our democracy and bring development
and prosperity to our communities.

Conclusion

I want to conclude by noting that one of the key tasks that we face as
government is to communicate what we do and the challenges that we face in the
course of our work. We need to accept that in most instances we do not inform
citizens that we also face enormous challenges when dealing with developmental
issues in our municipal areas.

The hard truth is that very few managers have gone to the community
meetings, accompanying the ward councillors to explain to citizens that, for
example, the institution has developed a set of priorities and not all
development needs will be met within a specific financial year.

Managers tend to leave everything to councillors to see how they explain
minute technical matters to communities, yet it is the managers who clearly
understand these developmental nuances. As managers we need to appreciate the
crucial role that we play in our societies. You have an image to create, that
you are a point of reference, a source of information, an advisor to our
leaders. You need to create a positive image and be proud that the success and
failure of these municipalities lie in your hands, and that you will not
fail.

No matter how enormous the challenges that our municipalities face, with a
cadre of leaders assembled in this conference, I have hope that as a collective
we will conquer these challenges, and indeed, as instructed by the White Paper,
use local government to consolidate our democracy.

Let me conclude by extracting a few lines from a poem “turn on your lights”
by seasoned and world-renowned African Author Ben Okri, it reads:

“You can't remake the world
without remaking yourself
Each new era begins within.
It is an inward event,
with unsuspected possibilities
for inner liberation.
We could use it to turn on
our inward lights.
We could use it to even the dark
and negative things positively.
We could use the new era
to clean our eyes,
to see the world differently,
to see ourselves more clearly.
Only free people can make a free world.
Infect the world with your light.
Help fulfil the golden prophecies.
Press forward the human genius.
Our future is greater than our past.”

As you deliberate in this conference, may you turn on the light so that our
people, through our efforts as local government practitioners can have a
harvest better than yesterday’s.

I thank you

Issued by: Department of Local Government, Housing and Traditional Affairs,
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Government
16 August 2006