Cleaning up local government

Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs - Sicelo Shiceka with uMhlathuze City Mayor - Cllr Zakhele Mnqayi at the Cosatu Public Sector Summit in Richards Bay

Hundreds of unionists attended the two-day Cosatu Public Sector Summit at the City of uMhlathuze in Richards this week

Only 45% of residents in KZN have access to basic services including water, electricity, sanitation and water. The startling provincial figure stands as three million households out of 13 million households countrywide are currently receiving below a basic level of service. This is according to Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Sicelo Shiceka, who unveiled the current state of service delivery and backlogs in municipalities at Cosatu’s Public Sector Summit in Richards Bay on Tuesday. Presenting a strategy to ‘turn the tide’ in local government at the two-day sitting, the Minister said 2010 was the year of working together to ‘speed up effective service to the people’. ‘With all the service delivery protests countrywide, people raised issues in the form of memorandums, protests, etc over many years,’ said Shiceka. ‘But nothing had been done until the protests got out of hand.‘Out of the clear service delivery targets set in 2006, not a single target has been met. ‘A total of 213 830 households need to be served with water while 600 452 households need to be served with sanitation facilities per year until 2014.’

Weaknesses
Going through the state of local governance in 2009, Shiceka said the countrywide protests were a symptom of various weaknesses. ‘Overall the system of local government is working and has been at the frontline of service delivery since 1994. ‘However, the system has experienced some serious challenges over the last few years, which almost make it dysfunctional. ‘The challenges need urgent attention. ‘This is not helping us as government, but undermining us,’ said Shiceka. Executing the municipal turnaround strategy, the Minister told local unionists that 10 mayors had already been removed from their posts following an overall assessment of municipalities. ‘Some of the factors influencing municipal performance have included lack of financial systems and controls, poor accountability, lack of skilled staff and political interference among others. ‘Inter- and intra- political factionalism and polarisation have resulted in the deterioration of municipal functionality. ‘External political influence undermines the decision of Council. ‘In many municipalities, corruption, fraud and financial mismanagement is pervasive across all political parties.’

Refined
Shiceka said they aimed at deepening a people-centred government through a refined model of ward committees and the deployment of mature and seasoned cadres to local government. He also announced plans of a single election for national, provincial and local government by 2014. ‘Our democracy has now matured and people will be able to vote on three ballots. ‘South Africa is fatigued by elections and the time has come to merge the three elections into one.’