Municipalities face challenges but they ‘can be fixed’ – Deputy President Mashatile

South African municipalities may be grappling with challenges, but they are “fixable”, according to Deputy President, Paul Mashatile 

Mashatile made the remarks when he was delivering the keynote address at the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) National Executive Committee Lekgotla, in Cape Town, on Tuesday afternoon.

South African municipalities are grappling with several challenges, including the inability to pay for bulk water and electricity supply, deteriorating infrastructure, service delivery issues, and poor governance.

However, Mashatile insists that, despite these challenges, coordinated efforts from all sectors can revive local government. 

“I believe that our municipalities can be fixed. We just need more concerted efforts in the implementation of the Professionalisation Framework, which applies to the National, Provincial, Local Government, and SOEs (State Owned Entities). The Framework focus on accelerating service delivery, addressing poor performance and the skills gap in the public service.

“Professionalisation is critical to ensuring that government is capable of delivering essential services to its citizens,” Mashatile told the lekgotla.

The Deputy President emphasized that intergovernmental integration is crucial for local government to turn the corner and achieve progress.

“Intergovernmental integration is critical for promoting collaboration, coordination, and communication across different levels of government. Through coordinating our efforts and resources, we can solve the complex difficulties that our communities face and, ultimately, provide better services to our residents.

“Together, we can streamline processes and leverage each other’s strengths to achieve greater impact. It is through this collaborative approach that we can unlock innovative solutions and drive sustainable development across our nation,” he said.

Mashatile highlighted government interventions aimed at “fixing” local government, including:

• Harmonising planning and budgeting as part of adopting the District Development Model.
• Implementing a Public-Private Partnership model in water supply with the National Treasury and the Department of Water and Sanitation to ensure that the current water crisis facing several communities is resolved
• The Minister of COGTA has proposed a one-stop solution to resolve the interlinked financial challenges between municipalities, water boards, and other stakeholders.

Coalition councils

Following the 2021 Local Government Elections, about 70 municipalities required coalitions to form governments as no single political party gained a majority.

The Deputy President acknowledged that although this is necessary, some of these municipalities have been plagued by instability and dysfunction.

“[In] practice, coalition governments have been unstable and are often terminated before the end of their term of office. Instability in local government coalitions has contributed to severe inefficiencies and service delivery challenges. 

“Coalition arrangements have compromised the ability of municipalities to adopt policies, pass budgets, adopt by-laws, and make senior management appointments,” he said.

However, growing instability in ‘hung’ municipalities, led to a government-convened National Dialogue on Coalition Governments.

The results of the dialogue was the development of a Framework for Coalitions in Local Government by SALGA.

“We have since used this framework as part of our source documents, amongst others, to develop a discussion document during the National Dialogue on Coalition governments, I convened in August 2023 at the University of the Western Cape.

“To this end, with the assistance of the Dullah Omar Institute and MISTRA (Mapungubwe Institute For Strategic Reflection), we have been able to develop a Coalitions Framework for South Africa. 

“This framework has been handed over to Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), as a basis for the development of the Municipal Structures Amendment Bill 2024 [Coalitions Bill] by CoGTA, which will be submitted for Cabinet approval and introduction to Parliament this year,” he revealed.

Working together

The Deputy President also implored the lekgotla to work with government to ensure that local government improves its responsiveness to communities.

“[It] is important that SALGA and all three spheres of government collaborate in order to find solutions to service delivery challenges.

“Let us harness the power of intergovernmental integration to build a more responsive, effective, and inclusive system of governance that truly serves the needs of our people,” Mashatile said. – SAnews.gov.za

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