Keynote Address by North West Premier, Prof Tebogo Job Mokgoro, on the occasion of the SALGA North West Provincial Members Assembly held in Klerksdorp
Programme Director,
The MEC for Local Government and Human Settlements, Mme Fenny Gaolaolwe,
The MEC for Finance, Economic and Enterprise Development, Mme Wendy Nelson
The National Chairperson of the South African Local Government Association, Cllr Parks Tau
The Provincial Chairperson of SALGA, Cllr Fetsang Mokati Members of the SALGA National Executive Committee, Members of the SALGA Provincial Executive Committee,
Executive Mayors and Speakers of our four District Municipalities,
Mayors and Speakers of the 22 Local Municipalities of the North West, Councillors from various municipalities,
All Members of the SALGA Provincial Assembly
Head of Department for the Department of Local Government and HumanSettlement, Mr Phihadu Ephraim Motoko,
Distinguished guests,
Members of the media,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Good morning.
I would like to first thank you for extending an invitation to the Provincial Government, represented by myself, to be part of this auspicious gathering – your Provincial Members Assembly.
We are truly humbled by your gesture.
We meet at a time when government, at all its spheres, is under tremendous pressure to deliver quality basic services to South Africans and the local government sphere is placed right at the coal face of service delivery.
It is worth reminding all delegates present here today that, at the beginning of the second quarter of this year, our province experience public upheavals as never seen before in this part of the country since the advent of a democratic order.
Our people steadfastly, albeit violence and destructive, that we have not done enough as government to delivery quality basic services as per their expectations when they mandated us at the polls.
It is therefore important that we take stock as leaders at local government level to properly make a determination as whether are we still the heartbeat of service delivery in the communities that we should be serving.
It has become evident we have become a government that has not done enough to bridge the divide between government and the electorate; hence we witnessed such violent protests across the length and breadth of the North West; wherein public and private property was destroyed and, in some instances, we witnessed the unfortunate loss of life.
Following those uprisings, the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Dr Zweli Mkhize visited the province to get first hand information of what could possibly have gone wrong in our municipalities and from that visit, it was found that most municipalities require immediate deployment of qualified experts in order to turn the situation around.
Therefore, the role of SALGA in our municipalities remain a very critical one, bearing in mind the fact that the Auditor-General’s audit outcomes in municipalities in this province demonstrate the inability of municipalities to attain clean audits, with some continuing to regress into financial management abyss while others are a regularly receiving disclaimers.
It then becomes the responsibility of SALGA to come up with a clearly defined strategy to promote good governance and accountability as recommendations by the Auditor-General are seldom, if at all, implemented by municipalities across the province.
Ladies and gentlemen, it is very disheartening to note that most municipalities are still not adhering to their own Service Delivery Improvement Plans (SDIPs) as well as the continued contravention of set regulatory frameworks means to help municipalities to accelerate basic service delivery.
On 22 August this year, the Provincial Cabinet held a Special EXCO meeting and on its agenda was receiving a diagnostic report on the state of municipalities in the North West from the Department of Local Government and Human
The CSIR also made a presentation on Science, Technology and Innovation for Municipalities.
The CSIR presentation focused on areas where the CSIR can support the province which include:
- Water and sanitation
- Roads, storm water and transport
- Solid waste management
- Energy resources
- Health facilities and services
- Decision making support
- Local Economic Enterprise Development
- Capacity Development
Having received the two presentations, the Executive Council resolved that all the 22 municipalities in the Province require constant monitoring and support. To this end, the Executive Council agreed that a report on the assessment of and support to municipalities will be a standing item in all its meetings.
I must make it very clear that we do not rejoice in placing municipalities under any form of constitutional intervention but we are not seeing any improvement over the years in these municipalities but instead, we are continuing to witness regression characterised by lack of basic service delivery, unskilled workforce, incompetency in management and poor financial control systems all round.
This will enable the Executive Council to regularly make an informed assessment on the state of municipalities and make informed interventions.
- Kagisano-Molopo Local Municipality
- Ramotshere Moiloa Local Municipality
- Ditsobotla Local Municipality
- Kgetleng Rivier Local Municipality
- Maquassi Hills Local Municipality
- Ngaka Modiri Molema District Municipality
- Naledi Local Municipality
- Mahikeng Local Municipality
These municipalities were found to be characterised by serious challenges which include but are not limited to the following:
- Negative Audit Outcomes as a result of quality and failure to implement Post Audit Action Plan;
- Lack of internal controls in place to prevent, detect and report unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure;
- Lack of Administrative Capacity due to high vacancy levels especially in senior management;
- Poor revenue collection which impacts on the ability to pay creditors, especially the Water Boards as well as Eskom, on time;
- Poor Management of conditional grants in particular Municipal Infrastructure Grant.There is generally regression of performance by municipalities particularly on Audit Outcomes; Expenditure Management of Municipal Infrastructure Grants and Credit and Debt Management;
- The turnover of municipal senior management affected the expected administrative capacity to drive service delivery and governance improvements.
Ladies and gentlemen, as a result we have appointed and placed Administrators in those municipalities, not with the intention to purge anyone but to turn these municipalities around for the better because our people deserve better quality delivery of basic services.
The Provincial Cabinet will continue to receive regular progress reports on the interventions – we have actually resolved to place this matter as a standing item at all EXCO meetings going forward until such a time that we are satisfied that significant progress has been made.
Ladies and gentlemen, Former President Thabo Mbeki, when addressing the 2007 SALGA National Conference highlighted the following concerns and I still believe that they are more relevant than ever to this gathering:
He asked;
- How can we make SALGA accountable for what happens or doesn’t happen in Local Government?
- How will we make sure that SALGA play a leading role in stabilising Local Government?
- How will SALGA improve its ability to anticipate tensions arising from communities and what mechanisms should be used to address whatever issues that are facing poor communities?
- What is the practical role is there for SALGA in the fight against poverty and underdevelopment?
- How will we ensure that SALGA make its members who bring the local government sphere into disrepute to account for their actions?
- How does SALGA help with the day to day work of municipalities? This gathering should strive to seek answers to these pertinent questions.
We are mandated by Article 23.1 of SALGA’s Constitution as amended, which provides for the convening of a Provincial Members Assembly (PMA) at least once a year; therefore, this gathering is has legal standing and I believe that decisions and resolutions that will be taken at this Assembly will for the good of the people of the North West.
I am reliably informed that the objectives of the Assembly, amongst others, are to;
- Deliberate amongst others on imperatives and priorities outlined in the SALGA 2017 - 2022 Strategy, Provincial Executive Committee Apex Priorities and any topical matters impacting on local Government;
- Reflect on the organisation’s performance, the implementation of the Rustenburg declaration, Stakeholder Management and the impact of SALGA’s programmes on the local government sector;
- Consult and solicit members feedback on the above matters and seek direction and guidance on pertinent matters to take forward;
- Foster partnership with key stakeholders in a quest to overcomes identified challenges and improve service delivery
- And to agree on a Programme of Action for the 2019/2020 financial year.
Chiarperson, it is then my request to this collective gathered here today, that in addition to the aforementioned Assembly objectives, they also discuss among other the following challenges facing local government in the North West Province;
- The persisting service delivery backlog in our communities,
- The ever increasing number of violent public protests lamenting poor service delivery across our province
- Capacity problems that have besieged the local government sphere of the State
- Use and misuse of physical and financial resources
- Non-adherence to supply chain prescripts at local government level during procurement processes
- Lack of oversight function by councillors in the daily affairs of municipalities
This must be a discussion in the light of the realistic mandate of providing communities with the necessary basic services and the resolutions of this Assembly should thus be in sync with the “HOPE OF A NEW DAWN” as espoused by the leaderhisp of President Cyril Ramaphosa when he rallied upon of all to raise our hands and say THUMA MINA.
In addition, it then becomes very imperative that when discussion get underway on the above matters, it should be done mindful of the interventions that the Provincial EXCO has put in place across municipalities so that we are able forward in unison towards improving service delivery as well as the lives of those that depend on us for a better life.
I thank you.
