Issued by Department of Provincial and Local Government
National Council of Provinces 13 June 2000
Madam Chairperson;
Honourable members:
Comparative experience shows that almost all countries continually put their governance processes under review. In most multi-sphere systems of government, it is important for governments to always keep the relationship between the various spheres on their radar screens. It is only if they do this that they will be able to find better ways of achieving service delivery efficiency and sustainable economic development.
Governance today must address complex issues and find solutions for complex problems. It must ensure that certain dichotomies, which are inherent in all multi-sphere systems, are kept in healthy balance. These are such trade-offs as:
This Madam Chairperson, is the context in which the recently released Audit Report on Intergovernmental Relations must be seen.
I must hasten to point out that the audit report is not the last word on the matter. What it represents are the views of the role players who were interviewed. It tells us what these role players think about our intergovernmental relations systems, structures and processes. This report will henceforth undergo a process of extensive interrogation by Focus Groups made up of major stakeholders involved in intergovernmental relations. These Focus Groups will test the veracity of the findings contained in the report. The report will thus form a basis of discussion, which must lead to the adoption of policy on Intergovernmental Relations.
The release of the report could not have happened at a better time. It comes at a time when we are poised profoundly to consolidate the continuing emergence of a healthy society by completing the negotiated phase of local government transition.
Local government, despite its centrality to the development effort, has been the weakest partner in the governing relationship. In the circumstances, many of our attempts at building a better life for our people could not be crowned with success.
Parliament is about to finalise putting in place, the legislative base for our country's democratic municipal governance. We are now crossing the threshold into an era which will be characterised by municipalities which have:
Clearly, the national and provincial spheres have played, and continue to play, an important catalytic role in the process of bringing about a new system of municipal governance. Even as the process continues to unfold, we must look around the corner of the coming world and be prepared for what we will find there.
The President's Co-ordinating Council (a forum which brings together the Presidency, the Ministry of Provincial and Local Government as well as the Premiers), believes that inadequate support for local government by the national and provincial spheres, is one of the reasons which lie at the base of municipalities' inability to discharge their mandate. It will be necessary, as we look at the Audit Report, for the National Council of Provinces to position itself in such a way that it helps solve this problem.
The Municipal Demarcation Act and the Municipal Structures Act encourage significant amalgamation of small local authorities with a view to provide more and better services at levels of government which are closest to the people. The proposals of the Municipal Demarcation Board are consistent with the provisions of these laws in that they will have the effect of increasing the size of government to achieve economies of scale.
One of the features of the new local government system will be the six metropolitan areas and the secondary cities. Over 50% of the people of South Africa and a very high proportion of job opportunities are found in these areas. This means that these areas will continue to constitute our country's productive base. However, the demographic reality of these areas will make them infinitely harder to manage.
Together with their district counterparts, metropolitan councils will be strategic catalysts for local economic development. We need to determine policies and other instruments, which will have to be put in place to ensure continuing national and provincial support for these municipal categories.
One of the reasons for the provinces' lack of impulse to support and supervise local government has been the fact that we tend not to budget for the expenditure which the discharging of such functions entails. The NCOP, the National Assembly, the Provincial legislatures as well as the National Fiscal Commission will have to look at this matter very closely.
The President's Co-ordinating Council attaches such importance to this issue that it directed the Department of Provincial and Local Government to co-ordinate the formulation of a national framework for monitoring, support and supervision. As we formulate this framework, we shall be guided by the following principles:
Although our constitution provides for national and provincial interventions in crisis situations, we are firmly of the view that interventions tend to produce a reversal of the original intent; they tend to undermine the integrity of the sphere they are intended to help. It is preferable to adopt a pro-active approach, which prevents crises from occurring, and therefore make interventions unnecessary.
It is against this background that the President's Co-ordinating Council provided an input which is intended to enable all the three spheres of government to perform their functions and exercise their powers. The rationale for this originates from section 125(3) and 154(1) of the constitution which require that national government assist provincial and local government to develop the capacity for the effective exercise of their powers and functions.
Although all national government departments have the obligation to build provincial capacity within their particular line functional terrain, the Department of Provincial and Local Government has the responsibility to co-ordinate and facilitate capacity-building efforts. It is for this reason that we have undertaken a project to assess capacity-building programmes conducted in the past five years and to identify capacity-needs which must be met. It is envisaged that the project will run until the end of February 2001.
Properly approached, the quest to achieve more effective methods and levels of collaboration between spheres of government will bring forth great feats of the human imagination. It requires the collective will to adopt flexible habits where objective conditions call for such habits to be adopted. For instance, we need to ask whether the current arrangement where organised local government enjoys only an observer status in the NCOP, is the best way by which to protect and promote the interest of this important sphere of government. This question extends to those executive intergovernmental structures which promote co-operation in areas of concurrent jurisdiction.
Chairperson and Honourable members, we must consider ourselves fortunate to live in the present - a time of change and excitement. It is a time which brings forth questions which must be answered, in order for the search for a better life to remain on course. Honourable members, it is my fervent hope that the NCOP will find a niche' for itself, in the front-line trenches of the continuing search for a people-centred system of governance in our country.
I thank you.