Skills shortages, boundary disputes and inadequate revenue to deal with growing populations in towns are the major contributors to poor service delivery by municipalities. This has emerged during a Parliamentary debate in the National Assembly, on the state of municipal governance.
Opening the debate, the Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Lechesa Tsenoli said the annual report on municipal performance was not an accurate reflection of reality.
“The report was not based on the work of municipalities as reflected by reality, many municipalities did not comply with the procedures and submitted fictitious reports,” Mr Tsenoli said. The recent protests for service delivery were a sign that municipalities were facing a challenge. “There are reasons for these protests and the impatience of the people is justified,” he added
Rural and poor municipalities struggled to attract skilled professionals as most preferred working in bigger cities. It emerged during the debate that the financing of poor rural municipalities was never adequate to deal with their backlogs. It was suggested that as an intervention, political leaders should create an enabling environment for rural towns to attract skilled workers.
Municipalities were also faced with growing populations against shrinking revenues. “Due to migration and urbanisation, funds are often not enough to deal with the growing population,” Mr Tsenoli said.
A member of the Committee, Ms Dumisile Nhlengethwa said that, together with the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the committee would conduct oversight visits to the areas at the centre of provincial boundary disputes (Matatiele and Moutse) to assess what the people wanted. Boundary disputes and soured relationships between traditional leaders and rural municipalities were also hampering the effective delivery of services.
“There is a sign of no consultation between the two groups and instead of focussing on the delivery of services they fight for the power to rule,” said a Member of Parliament, Mr Wilson Mavunda.
The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Mr Sicelo Shiceka agreed that not all is good in our municipalities.
A national indaba on the state of municipalities is planned for September to draft a turnaround strategy. “The strategy will be approved by Cabinet before year-end and will be implemented next year,” the Minister assured the House.
Issued by: Parliament of South Africa
21 August 2009
Source: Parliament of South Africa (http://www.parliament.gov.za/)
