15 July 1999
Minister Sydney Mafumadi
Chairperson of SALGA, Councillor Matjila
Deputy Chairperson of SALGA, Ms. N. Mfeketo
Delegates
Mayors and Councillors
Guests from our Continent and the Commonwealth
Ladies and Gentlemen:
I am honoured to address you on this important occasion. The significance of your AGM is enhanced by the resounding success of the June 2 democratic elections. The survey by the HSRC showed that in excess of 90% of voters across the divide regarded the election as free and fair. The high turnout during the election also confounded the prophets of doom who doubted our people's commitment to deepening democracy. In fact this turnout is almost unprecedented for a second election, following the founding election.
Through these second democratic elections reaffirmed their commitment to build a better life for all, especially the poorest of the poor. The turnout reflects both confidence in the government, but also reaffirms the legitimacy of the government. It also reflected the view amongst our people that government has brought about meaningful changes, but that delivery needs to be implemented at a faster pace. The pervasive feeling is also that government has stated to address the needs of people and is on the right track. The central theme that has emerged from this election is that change must happen faster and the transformation process must be deepened.
This AGM is a milestone in the transformation of local government. It provides you with the opportunity of making your own contribution in ensuring the strengthening of local government and the deepening of democracy for us all. As local government, you are called upon to take stock and reflect on your recent experiences, and to address the challenges that confront local government in the next century, in the third millennium.
As we reinvent local governance in an increasingly globalising world we need to understand clearly the terms of our engagement. In the same vein we need to understand the impact and implications of the African renaissance on local governance.
We are aware that through our actions, we make our history and are makers of our own destiny, but we know that we do this not in the circumstances of our choosing. We inherited a local government that discriminated on the basis of race, gender and physical disability, a government that fostered urban and rural divides. Necessarily the allocation of human and financial resources reflected and reinforced these distinctions. Apartheid presented to the democratic South Africa backlogs in infrastructure and arrears and debts of the formerly black local authorities.
While we have done all we can in the last five years in redressing the past, through laying the foundations of our democracy at local, provincial and national levels, the apartheid legacy still weighs heavily on us, especially at local level. Transformation will only be complete when the last vestiges of this system are removed. Only then can our people truly prosper at a local level and shape their own lives.
The people-centred, caring society we are building, where African values of sharing and co-operation are paramount, is dependent on our people beginning to own processes and policies at a local level.
Only when democracy is fully understood by ordinary people at local level as creating an enabling environment which they control, only when our people at local level can see before their own eyes that we are our own liberators, can this understanding be translated into the bigger picture of a committed nation working together for a better quality of life for all where people live. This will happen by speeding up change and deepening the transformation process, especially at the local level.
This transformation agenda of our democracy compels us to ensure that local government is a developmental, performance driven sphere, that all South Africans, especially the poor who are in the majority must have access to services, economic development and real improvement in their lives.
This is only possible if we commit ourselves to an integrated local delivery system and if we move forward faster in the process of restructuring and transforming local government. The Local Government Transition Act has already mapped out the phases of this process. In our current phase, a new local government system with non-racial municipalities and administrations is being redesigned and legislated upon.
Constitutional basis/framework: co-operative governance
Our new democratic system of government has ensured that local government can no longer be regarded as the poor relation of national and provincial government. Our fundamental law in section 40 of our constitution states that: "In the Republic in terms of our constitution the local sphere of government consisting of municipalities must be established for the whole of the territory of the Republic of South Africa". The period ahead of us demands of us to improve the system of cooperative government and intergovernmental relations that have evolved over the last few years. This gathering is therefore obliged to seize this moment and to expand the horizons of cooperative governance into and beyond the new millenium.
Similarly, we are however mindful of the challenges that is inherent in the sphere of cooperative governance. The constitution requires that we need to "establish or provide for structures and institutions to promote and facilitate intergovernmental relations". Furthermore, the White Paper on local government is expressive with regard to the issue of urban renewal and rural development. Sound labour relations are critical for the effective provision of municipal services.
Public - private partnership programmes to provide services have shown how better quality services can be delivered at a lower cost. The department of provincial and local government plans to publish a Green Paper on municipal service partnerships. The express objective is to maximise the input and involvement of people in our communities in these kinds of projects. This echoes the important notion of government working closely together with people through partnerships to achieve our development objectives. Linkages in the intergovernmental system especially amongst local councils will also be enhances through. Government intends to ensure the participation of local government on intergovernmental structures like the IGF, MINMEC'S and the Budget Forum.
Another important focus area for government is to pay particular attention to aligning the system of traditional leadership with the new local government system. Government has gone to great lengths, within the limits of the Constitution, to give traditional leaders a role in local councils and in the decisions affecting development in traditional authority areas. Only through a partnership, in fact the same cooperative governance system, between the institutions of traditional leadership and local government can we ensure the success of local development initiatives.
Government Support for the Transformation Process
The firm focus of the government is certainly going to be on deepening the local government transformation process, bring about financial viability and ensuring services reach people. This will be done through:
Redemarcating all municipal boundaries, under the Demarcation Board;
Changing municipalities into more strategic, efficient and people orientated structures in line with government's overall economic and political activities;
Accelerating infrastructure delivery through the municipal infrastructure programme and private sector investment iniatives;
Supporting developmental local government through a wide variety of capacity building projects, coordinated under the umbrella of the Local Government Transformation Programme;
Focussing in a major way on the strengthening of the District Council system to ensure the extending of delivery of services in rural areas as part of an integrated rural development strategy;
Putting local government onto a financially sustainable footing, and ensure that municipalities adopt balanced budgets and exercise proper financial control, improve the municipal tax base and tightening up revenue collection and finally helping families and households that are genuinely too poor to pat for services;
Using the political powers vested in the Constitution to intervene more firmly and rapidly in municipalities which are facing financial problems - in other words sort out these problems at an early stage before they reach the stage of collapse;
Getting in place more efficient and transparent systems for councils to conduct their business, stamp out corruption firmly, with better working committee systems, make sure that residents have better access to their representatives and participate more meaningfully in the affair of municipalities and more empowered leadership (e.g. through Executive Mayors). This will be done largely through the Municipal Structures Act, which was promulgated in December 1998.
Build Up to the Next Election
I know it is difficult to conceptualise that the local elections will be upon us towards the end of next year when we just had one on 2 June. However, that is the reality of deepening of our democracy. The following steps are absolutely critical in the build up to the upcoming local election. They include:
All the Metropolitan, District and Local boundaries (including ward boundaries) must be relooked and redrawn by the Demarcation Board;
In terms of the Municipal Structures Act there must be national guidelines on matters such as council size, types of municipalities, division of powers and functions and part time and full time councillors;
The voters roll also needs to be reopened so that registration of new voters in terms of the new boundaries can take place.
We all need to work together to ensure that our programme of local government transformation is completed in time for the elections at local level.
Y2K and Local Government
I would like to take this opportunity to make a few remarks about a major challenge facing us at the end of this millenium, namely the Y2K problem. The data problem in our IT systems, which cannot read a 4 digit year number, could if left uncorrected, collapse all our main computer systems. As a result, key services like transport, communication, electricity, financial transactions and so on could collapse as a result.
In truth a major catastrophe awaits us if we do not intervene decisively. We have take firm steps in this regard to get all government systems updated and working properly. At local government level, countrywide intervention programmes have been initiated. Teams of specialists to audit systems and set up physical correction projects. In this way we want to ensure that all "mission critical" systems in local government are updated and even working better by the time the new millenium arrives. Government has also declared 31st December and 2nd January public holidays to check and correct any problems that may crop up.
Local Government and the African Renaissance
The new spirit of international cooperation has important implications for local government to ensure that the next century will indeed be the African century. We can proudly acknowledge that Salga has indeed been at the forefront of opening up international relations between municipalities across the world. I am also proud to note that for the first time in its history, the International Union of Local Authorities has elected an African, Colonel Max Ngwandwe as its President.
Building and strengthening local government on the African continent is very much part of the African renaissance project to build a better and more prosperous Africa. We also need to ensure mutually beneficial relations. In this regard, I am pleased to announce that that at the end of the month, South Africa will be hosting a major SADC conference focussing on building co-operation around local government issues.
CONCLUSION
In conclusion, I would like to congratulate SALGA on organising a successful AGM and for drawing together the local political leadership to focus on the challenge of transformation at local level - the level closest to people. Organised local government has a crucial role in championing local interests and aligning its development efforts with that of the other spheres of government in an integrated fashion. I wish you well on your deliberations over the next few days at your AGM with reference to our mandate to accelerate change and deepen the transformation process in a co-operative fashion, focusing on the partnership between government and the people. As I bade you farewell, I know that you will emerge with on Saturday with renewed determination to fulfil our collective vision of a people striving to improve the conditions of life at local level.
I thank you again for the invitation to be with you at your third AGM.
Faranani! Let Us Work Together For A Better Life For All!
Issued by the Communications Unit, Office of the Presidency, Pretoria
For more information phone Matula Magubane on 083 629 7577