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Let's work together to turn the tide in Local Government

On the 6-8 November 2009 the ANC NEC held its last ordinary meeting of the year. It received and discussed our report on the state of local government, amongst others.

The NEC noted that local government is an important sphere of government, particularly for delivering service to our people and it further noted that despite challenges at this level of government some municipalities and councillors are doing wonderful work in meeting the needs of our people.

The NEC cited that systematic legislative as well as political factors contribute to the erosion of confidence of the majority of our people in our municipalities as the primary delivery machine and it agreed that a turnaround strategy is urgently needed to restore the confidence of our people in our municipalities.

Local Government is Central to Advancing the National Democratic Revolution

The political and ideological roots of our system of our local government are embedded in our rich tradition of struggle for a united, democratic, non-racist, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa.

Local government is a critical vehicle of the state and the movement that must be utilised to realise the vision of the Freedom Charter, the RDP and to give effect to the resolutions of the 52nd ANC National Congress, held in Polokwane in 2007.

In 1955 the true Congress of the People asserted that, "the people shall govern." This revolutionary position has consistently guided the approach and values of the National Democratic Revolution of the ANC and its Allies during the harshest period of apartheid rule to the dawn of the new South Africa in 1994 and continues to do so in 2009.

In 1994 when the ANC assumed power we noted in the Reconstruction and Development Programme that "the National Government wishes to unlock the political and creative energies of the people and bring the Government closer to the people. In this regard Local Governments have an important role to play."

In the 52nd ANC National Congress, we adopted the Strategy and Tactics document that argued that the NDR has both national and democratic tasks. It argued that we should continue to strive to realise:
• a united state based on the will of all the people, without regard race, sex, belief, language, ethnicity or geographic location;
• a dignified and improving quality of life among all the people by providing equal rights and opportunities to all citizens; and
• the restoration of the birthright of all South Africans regarding access to land and other resources.
The fundamental thread that has guided the ANC since its inception through these key milestone periods outlined above, reinforce the principle that our movement and system of governance must be mass-based, people-driven and inclusive.

At Polokwane we noted that 1994 provided us with a unique opportunity to "combine state and mass power, in serving the interest of the people". Local Government is that sphere of governance that is best positioned to enable us to deepen and advance our vision of a national democratic society.

ANC's 2006 Local Government Electoral Mandate

Following the last local government elections in 2006 the ANC received a clear mandate to drive the transformation and service delivery agenda of municipalities. The ANC stated in its 2006 Local Government Electoral Manifesto that it has "A Plan To Make Local Government Work For You". This entailed the following:
1. A re-commitment to Vision 2014 through a "A People's Contract to Create Work and Fight Poverty";
2. Working towards the realization of clear service delivery targets which includes the following:
o No community will still be using the bucket system for sanitation by 2007;
o All communities will have access to clean water and decent sanitation by 2010;
o All houses will have access to electricity by 2012; and
o A commitment to halve unemployment and poverty by 2014.
3. Championing a Councillor Code of Conduct; and
4. Implementation of a hands-on programme to ensure that national and provincial governments will work harder to build local government.
We must remind ourselves that as we approach the 2011 municipal elections, our electorate will expect us to give feedback on how we have performed in terms of our 2006 electoral mandate. The ANC's response must be one of honest feedback, reflecting good progress and poor performance, and how we intend to re-double our efforts to build more accountable, responsive, effective and efficient municipalities.

Overall Assessment of Local Government in 2009

By September 2009 all provinces completed a process of interacting with all municipalities to assess their performance. This process was largely politically managed and supported by officials from national and provincial government. The key question posed during the assessment was "What is the state of local government in 2009 and what must be done to restore the confidence of our people in this sphere of government by 2011 and beyond?"

On the 21st and 22nd of October 2009 a National Local Government Indaba was held in Ekurhuleni to present the findings of the national assessment of municipalities. The national State of Local Government Report concluded that, overall the system of local government is working, but it is in distress. There are many failures and weaknesses that stem from external factors to internal ones in municipalities.

It stressed that the findings across various thematic areas are not equally applicable to all municipalities and that a bold decisive intervention is needed to turn the tide in local government.

Ideal Developmental Local Government

The report reminded us of the core Constitutional ideals and mandate that we entrusted to local government (Section 152):
1. to provide democratic and accountable government for local communities;
2. to ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner;
3. to promote social and economic development;
4. to promote a safe and healthy environment; and
5. to encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government.
These ideals are further elaborated in the 1998 White Paper on Local Government and in subsequent legislation, such as the Municipal Systems Act (1998).

Need to Salute the Disciplined Cadres in Local Government

The assessment of local government acknowledged that there are many hard working comrades, officials, men and women in local government across the country. We must all follow the examples of these comrades, councilors and officials.

Government has over the years rolled out a programme on Municipal Performance Excellence (Vuna Awards) aimed at recognizing good performance in municipalities. Furthermore the ANC has its own annual ZK Mathews Award aimed at recognizing the best group of performing ANC Councillors.

Local Government has been at the Forefront of Service Delivery Since 1994

Overall the system of local government is working and has been at the frontline of service delivery since 1994. The Stats SA Community Survey of 2007 demonstrates that our municipalities have played this valuable role, as reflected in increased access to basic services between 1994 and 2007:
• Percentage of households with access to water increased from 59% in 1994 to 88% in 2007;
• Percentage of households with access to sanitation increased from 48% in 1999 to 71% in 2007; and
• In 1994 30% of households in South Africa had access to electricity and in 2007 this percentage increased to 80% for lighting, 67% for cooking and 59% for heating.
Key Challenges Continue to Face Local Government

The assessment of local government recognizes a number of problems and challenges that are influenced by both external and internal factors. These findings deal with the key thematic areas of spatial and settlement patterns, governance, service delivery, financial management and labour relations.

The key conclusion regarding the spatial and settlement patterns are that the apartheid landscape has not significantly changed since 1994. The poor continue to be located far from work opportunities and migration patterns continue to show movement away from some rural provinces toward the urban-based provinces of the Gauteng and the Western Cape.

It is also noted that most economic activity (88%), involving the majority of the population (71%) is concentrated on a small part of the country's surface area (7%).

The governance systems in many municipalities are characterized by critical problems and challenges. These include:
• Dysfunctional Councils;
• Ineffective professional administration;
• Weak and/or absent mechanisms for local democracy;
• Weak municipal performance management;
• The role of the institution of traditional leadership in matters of local governance and service delivery and development is uneven;
• Poor intergovernmental support and oversight;
• Poor communication capability.
On service delivery, it is noted that three provinces with the biggest water backlogs are Limpopo (552 156 households), Eastern Cape (438 164 households) and Kwa-Zulu Natal (463 650 households). Furthermore, Limpopo, North West and Northern Cape have no additional water resources available.

It is noted that nationally, 213 830 households need to be served with water per year until 2014. Similar statistics are given for sanitation, roads, electricity and refuse removal.

Regarding financial management key challenges identified include the observation that financial allocations from national government do not sufficiently take the spatial differences of provinces and municipalities into account. There is also a growing grant dependency of municipalities, e.g. 78 municipalities receive more than 75% of their revenue from national transfers.

While there are slow improvements in the overall audit opinions of municipalities, there are major problems of financial management in many municipalities. It is also noted that instances of corruption, fraud and financial mismanagement are noticeable across municipalities of all political parties.

In the area of labour relations, a breakdown of a functional relationship between municipalities and organized labour is apparent in many municipalities and the poor functionality of Local Labour Forums is widespread. The Organized Rights Collective Agreement is not consistently applied across provinces in municipalities and there is an apparent general lack of political and senior management oversight of labour relations in municipalities.

Furthermore many municipal organograms are outdated and non-functional and there are no national guidelines on post establishment and organograms. Flouting of HR procedures and policies is also a problem in some municipalities.

Why A Turn-Around of Local Government is Necessary?

The ANC's primary electoral mandate is that of improving the lives of our people. This entails the need to ensure that sufficient state and municipal resources and capacity are set aside to implement the 2006 Manifesto by 2014. Linked to this, achieving the Millennium Developmental Goals by 2014 must be a strategic priority. In doing this we must ensure that our communities, through Ward Committees, have a greater role in monitoring the quality and quantity of service delivery.

Organisationally, building a strong, capacitated and disciplined ANC on the ground is a necessary condition for turning the tide of local government. This must mean the following actions need to be attended to:
1. The political school of the ANC must strengthen its focus on local government;
2. Implementation of the ANC's Councillor's Code of Conduct must be re-activated and strengthened;
3. Standards and requirements for councillors must be developed in preparation for 2011 local government elections;
4. Strong ANC and Alliance structures must be at the forefront of building effective organs of people's power at a municipal level;
5. Municipal employees should not hold office bearer's positions in political parties; and
6. Deployment and appointment of cadres as senior officials in municipalities must be designated to those deployed Councillors on the recommendation of the deployment committees (note: Amathole Court judgement).
The primary objectives of a Turn Around Strategy for Local Government must be to:
• Restore the confidence of the majority of our people in our municipalities, as the primary delivery machine of the developmental state at a local level; and
• Re-build and improve the basic requirements for a functional, responsive, effective, efficient and accountable developmental local government
Government is finalizing a national Local Government Turn-Around Strategy that must reflect a role for all levels and sectors of the state and society. Clear roles must be identified for business, labour, Non-governmental Organisations, Community Based Organisations and donor and various other development partners.

This Turn Around Strategy must identify key actions, tasks and interventions that seek to address the root causes of the many problems that we see in local government. Going forward we must seek to build the broadest alliance and support base across all strata and groups in South Africa for the local government turn-around programme.

The basis of this should be a set of governance values that can unite the nation:
• Rights and Responsibilities are inseparable;
• Common national patriotism;
• Ubuntu;
• Loyalty to the Constitution;
• Transparency and Accountability of Public Office;
• Responsiveness of Public Officials;
• Ethical Behaviour By All;
• The poorest and vulnerable are a priority;
• Volunteerism and community service;
• Support and Partnerships are Necessary.
The Freedom Charter in 1955, the RDP in 1994, Polokwane in 2007, the municipal elections in 2006 and the national and provincial elections in 2009 created many expectations for ordinary South Africans. We dare not fail them!

Local government must be at the centre of all ANC structures at all levels. It is everyone's business.

Working together we can do more!