Honourable Speaker, Ministers and Deputy Ministers, Distinguished Members of the House, MECs, Executive Mayors, Mayors and Councillors, Traditional Leaders here today, Chairpersons of Entities, Distinguished Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen.
We are privileged to be afforded the opportunity to present the integrated Budget Vote for the Departments of Cooperative Governance (DCoG) and Traditional Affairs (DTA) for the financial year 2011/2012. This Budget Vote is particularly significant and historic in that it takes place in the context of the successful conclusion of the third democratic local government elections held on 18 May 2011.
Honourable Members, for the first time 10 055 council seats which includes 4277 wards, were contested in 8 metropolitan councils, 44 districts and 226 local municipalities. The number of Councillors from the 2011 election has increased by 12.3% and 8.5% from the 2000 and 2006 elections respectively.
The holding of these elections under free and fair conditions is indeed a true testimony to the enduring and maturing democracy. The voter turnout of 57.54% was the highest ever since 2000 and the most peaceful for local elections. You have all done the country proud! Our appreciation goes to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) and all stakeholders in ensuring such successful elections.
Department’s response to the Parliamentary Ad-Hoc Committee Report on Service Delivery
The Department welcomes the report prepared by the Parliamentary Ad-Hoc Committee on Service Delivery. The report is consistent with and confirms the findings of the comprehensive assessment done by the department with regard to the challenges and weaknesses in our system of local government. We will be working closely with Provinces in processing our response to the report.
In this regard, the department has presented the Ad-Hoc Committee report with an implementation Plan to the Local Government MinMec in December 2010. The report was circulated to all provinces for consideration and recommendations. Thus far the Department has only received four provincial reports namely, Limpopo, Eastern Cape, Northern Cape and North-West. In this regard, significant progress has been made on some of the national areas that cover the following areas:
- Governance
- Corruption
- Service delivery
- Finance
- Communication and Sectoral Inputs
The department together with provinces will finalise a comprehensive response to tackle the issues raised in the report of the Ad-hoc Committee.
How has the Department improved since the last Budget Vote
Honourable Speaker, the restructuring process of CoGTA has been completed with most of the posts at the top management structures of both the Departments of Cooperative Governance (90%) and Traditional Affairs (83%) filled. The restructuring exercise provided a unique opportunity to re-organise departmental resources align the programmes and recruiting additional and new skills that are critical in the implementation of the departmental programmes.
Honourable Speaker, in his State of the Nation Address on 10 February 2011, His Excellency, President JG Zuma highlighted the tremendous progress that our country has made thus far in delivering basic services. He also warned that whilst many South Africans celebrated the delivery of houses, electricity or water, there are many others who are still waiting. A stark reality is that the legacy of decades of apartheid underdevelopment and colonial oppression cannot be undone in only 17 years. In this regard, more resources have been made available to address the needs at local government level in order to accelerate service delivery.
Firstly, municipalities are currently receiving 8.7% of the revenue divided between the three spheres of government in 2011/12, which is projected to rise to 8.9% in 2012/13 and 2013/14. National transfers to local government have increased substantially, and will amount to over R70 billion in budgetary assistance and infrastructure grants in the 2011/12 year.
Secondly, the annual expenditure data from National Treasury, on aggregate, suggests that local government is not failing as dismally as perceptions suggest e.g. expenditure in the sphere has increased from R45.8bn in 1997 and most dramatically, to R232.6bn last year. Notwithstanding these improvements, there is still a need to increase both the capacity of municipalities to spend but also the fiscal support to municipalities.
Ever since the adoption of the LGTAS by Cabinet in December 2009, indeed significant progress is being made at a municipal level to implement the LGTAS.
Operation Clean Audit 2014
The following municipalities received Clean Audit reports from the findings of the Auditor-General in 2009/2010 financial year, and the AG has commended the active leadership role of Mayors and Councillors in their oversight to improve governance and financial management systems:
- Metsweding District Municipality in Gauteng, Ehlanzeni District Municipality, Steve Tshwete Local Municipality and Victor Khanye Local Municipality all in Mpumalanga, Frances Baard District Municipality in Northern Cape, Cape Town in Western Cape and Fetakgomo Local Municipality in Limpopo.
- Furthermore, for the first time all municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal submitted their annual financial statements on time. In total, 53 disclaimers against the 85 reported in the previous year.
Municipal Turn Around Strategies
Over the past financial year COGTA concentrated on providing institutional support to municipalities to develop their municipal specific turn around strategies. To date 90% of municipalities have their own Municipal Turn-around Strategies (MTAS), which have been incorporated in IDP’s. Part of the management of the transition after the elections is to ensure that the new Councillors implement the MTAS priorities in the IDPs.
The election of new Councillors provides COGTA with an opportunity to accelerate the implementation of the Local Government Turn Around Strategy. In this regard, the department will be undertaking Provincial Road shows/Summits starting in June till October 2011, with the objective of ensuring that the new leadership of LG is thoroughly prepared to lead in the programme of turning around our municipalities into effective, efficient, responsive and accountable institution of government, as expected by our people.
Induction Programme for incoming Councillors
- CoGTA is working in partnership with SALGA to prepare for the Councillor Induction Programme (CIP) for 2011/12 financial year. This is aimed at ensuring that the newly elected Councillors are capacitated with a general understanding of their leadership role, legislation that guides local government, key municipal processes, developmental Local government and service delivery. In addition, COGTA will ensure that newly elected Councillors are equipped to accelerate the implementation of LGTAS so that they can hit the road running.
Clean Cities and Towns
- CoGTA has launched the Clean Cities and Towns pilot programme respectively in Mbhashe Local Municipality (Elliotdale) on 21 April 2011 and Ingquza Hill Local Municipality (Flagstaff and Lusikisiki) on 13 May 2011 in the Eastern Cape Province. A key priority will be to coordinate support from all relevant stakeholders across the country. This will focus on greening initiatives, public education campaigns to promote beautification and cleaning of cities and towns. This campaign is designed to ensuring that we create an enabling environment to attract investors in municipalities, healthy environment for the communities as well as job creation.
Municipal System Amendment Bill
- The Municipal System Amendment Bill was finalised by both Houses of Parliament on April 2011. This Bill sends a clear signal that our municipalities must and will be more professional in the manner in which they do their business by ensuring amongst others that competent and well qualified officials are appointed to provide the best possible service to our people; regulates various matters of human resources management in a manner that provides uniformity and predictability; deepen accountability by the senior municipal officials to the Council and by the same token places certain obligations on politically elected officials.
- The Bill also prohibits municipal managers and those directly reporting to them Section 57 employees) from holding any position as office bearers in any political party; and finally it makes the provision for organized local government to consult with the minister responsible for Cooperative governance and Traditional Affairs prior to entering into negotiations with the Local Government Bargaining Council.
Access to Services
In his State of the Nation Address, the President has stressed that service delivery is of pivotal importance. We are happy to report that in this regard, demonstrable progress has been recorded in the provision of water, sanitation, electricity and refuse removal as well as the infrastructure that goes with it. However, it is our considered view that we need to increase the provision and quality of services with specific focus on rural areas.
The Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG) is the key instrument being used by municipalities to access infrastructure funding for their capital expenditure projects. The vast majority of municipalities in the country have generally improved expenditure on the MIG. We acknowledge that some have challenges and these are the municipalities that we will pay special attention to in the period ahead.
As at the end of April 2011, four (4) provinces have spent over 70% of their MIG allocation with one quarter still to be accounted for. These include the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng and KZN. Provinces lagging including the Western Cape, Northern Cape, North West, Mpumalanga and Limpopo.
The Department will transfer R11.4 billion of MIG to municipalities this financial year. It is however, important for municipalities to maintain their infrastructure to improve the quality and reliability of services. In this regard the Department will be working with the AG, Ministry in the Presidency and National Treasury to strengthen monitoring and evaluation on capital expenditure for bulk infrastructure.
Furthermore, a Special Purpose Vehicle will be implemented in order to accelerate support in the delivery of bulk infrastructure and provision of requisite skills to municipalities.
Job Creation
The creation of jobs as an important priority of government’s fight against poverty is also finding meaningful expression in the CoGTA programmes. The Community Work Programme scaled up significantly in April 2010 to March 2011 with a total number of 89,698 work opportunities created.
Traditional leadership institutions have played a critical role in creating employment and generation of wealth. They have identified land suitable for industrial and agricultural purposes in rural areas and pilots are already being rolled out in the following provinces, KZN, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape.
Supporting the Human Settlement Outcomes
Honourable Speaker, in support to the Human Settlements Outcome, CoGTA will be working closely with municipalities and traditional leaders to release the land for development. We will also provide institutional support to municipalities that have been granted housing accreditation status. The programme will be in the six metropolitans, two districts (Frances Baard and Pixley ka Seme) that were granted Level 2 Accreditation status for housing provision.
Refined Ward Committee Model
In this financial year CoGTA will give particular attention to strengthening the capacity of the Wards. This will help to enhance meaningful public participation and strengthen democratic and developmental local government system. In this regard engagement with community constituencies and grassroots civil society organisations will be intensified.
Improve Municipal Financial and Administrative Capability
Another key focal area for CoGTA is the improvement of financial and administrative capability of municipalities. 103 Municipal Public Accounts Committees (MPACs) have been established to date. Provinces then developed action plans to address previous audit outcomes and now monitor the implementation of their action plans. Furthermore, individual or shared Internal Audit Units have been established in 263 municipalities, and in 268 municipalities individual or shared Audit Committees have also now been established.
Our commitment as well as capability to uproot any manifestation of corruption continues unabated. An Inspectorate on fighting Fraud and Corruption in Provinces and Municipalities has been established.
We are also proceeding to work closely with law enforcement agencies such as the SAPS and the SIU. Any attempt to steal public money and resources meant for the poor and vulnerable will be dealt with vigorously.
Single Window of Coordination
In our quest, to strengthen the coordination across the three spheres of government as well as move beyond coordination towards better performance, service delivery and accountability, the Department will be processing two critical policy documents, a Green Paper on Cooperative Governance and a Review of the LG White Paper.
Bills for 2011
The following Bills and amendments to legislation will be introduced in Parliament in 2011/12 with the intent of removing all obstacles that hinder service delivery:
- Municipal Property Rates Amendment Bill, 2011
- National Traditional Affairs Bill
- Monitoring Support and Intervention Bill
Policy and initiatives on traditional leadership and institutions
The strategic role of the new Department of Traditional Affairs is to ensure that the institution is transformed and integrated into the democratic governance system. It will also partner with the Khoi-San leadership and communities.
The members of the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims assumed duty on 1 January 2011 and their term will be for a period not exceeding five years. The Department of Traditional Affairs is tasked with ensuring that the Commission operates well and in close contact with the Provinces. The Commission will be finalising over 100 claims and disputes during this financial year.
The DTA also coordinated the project on the assessment of the state of governance within the area of traditional affairs. To date, six provincial assessments were conducted in Northern Cape, Mpumalanga, Free State, Eastern Cape, Gauteng and Limpopo, whilst the North West and Kwa-Zulu Natal provinces will be assessed at a later date. The preliminary findings from these assessments revealed the following cross-cutting issues:
- Support to the institutions of Traditional leadership is minimal in most provinces;
- Limited resources to support the institutions; and
- Poor relations between elected local government Councillors and traditional leaders, in some provinces amongst other things.
The national composite report will inform a number of the Department’s projects for the next MTEF, including a sector wide strategy.
The Department of Traditional Affairs has commenced with the work to consolidate the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act, 2003 and the National House of Traditional Leaders Act, 2009, into a single piece of legislation. This has resulted in the drafting of the National Traditional Affairs Bill which will ensure an integrated approach in dealing with matters relating to traditional affairs. In addition to the consolidation of existing laws, the Bill seeks to provide for the recognition of Khoi-San communities, their structures and leadership positions.
Local Government is Everybody’s Business. Be Part of It!!
In conclusion, we can say that we will achieve a better life for all our people if national and provincial government work together to support local government in achieving service delivery outcomes. We recently visited Dipaliseng in Mpumalanga and observed that an integrated approach of government can indeed ensure effective delivery of services and we call upon Members, the media and all stakeholders to visit that area to see for themselves. Most of the demands by the local community have been met but more still needs to be done.
Lastly, Local government has also a responsibility to work better with communities to ensure that all South Africans are active participants in the development of the areas where they live. We owe it to our children and future generations to make Local Government Work. Local Government is Everybody’s Business. Let us all Be Part of It.
