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A presentation by the Public Service Commission (PSC) delivered in Parliament yesterday noted various concerns around the appointment of municipal managers. This again emphasised the urgency for Minister Richard Baloyi to finalise regulations to give effect to the Municipal Systems Amendment Act.

These regulations must set education, skills and experience requirements for municipal managers and senior officials and prohibit, for specified terms, the employment or re-employment of municipal officials found guilty of certain categories of misconduct.

The PSC told the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs that only 44% of municipalities reviewed used vetting processes (including criminal record checks and verification of qualifications) when appointing senior managers; that reference checks are done in only 52% of cases; and that only 33% of candidates are required to complete competency tests.

This means that we cannot be certain whether a number of managers in senior municipal positions can in fact do their jobs.

The long-awaited regulations to give effect to the Municipal Systems Amendment Act 2011 would address this.

The Act was promulgated on 5 July 2011. In his budget speech in May 2012, Minister Baloyi undertook to have these regulations finalised by the end of July 2012. In a statement issued on 23 August 2012 he then indicated that they would be released at the end of August. We are yet to have sight of these regulations.

If we have bad municipal managers, we will have bad service delivery.

It was folly for the department not to promulgate the Municipal Systems Act and the regulations at the same time. Allowing a year to elapse has led to a flurry of bad appointments at municipal government level.

The fact that 12 months have passed since the promulgation renders the excuse that "continuous consultation" is still required rather thin. The Minister must commit to delivering these regulations to be discussed, agreed and promulgated before the end of the last parliamentary term of 2012.