By Prof Sethulego Matebesi
As South Africa approaches almost three decades of democracy, no sector has generated public outrage as much as local government.
The 22-year history of local government – with its transformative agenda underpinned by a developmental and democratic approach – has been a challenging journey.
Understanding how local government institutions and actors respond to challenges is central to achieving lasting solutions. There have been dozens of books and articles written about municipalities. Many of these focus on governance and service delivery issues.
They view municipalities as failing to respond to persistent challenges while acknowledging pockets of excellence in some areas such as Saldanha Bay, Gamagara, Overstrand, Mossel Bay and George.
In short, though, municipalities remain a dysfunctional mess. Just as municipal performances have been under public purview, the same has been true for the government.
Since 2000, each president has used the State of the Nation Address (Sona) to identify the challenges and achievements of municipalities. The message over the years has been virtually identical: an increased number of citizens now have access to basic municipal services.
However, we are mindful of the immense challenges facing this sector. And how can I forget the disingenuous political mantra uttered at each Sona: “We will act, without hesitation against those who fail to perform their mandated duties and continue to use municipalities to advance their interests at the expense of communities.”
This rhetoric of care pervades the political response to the malaise of backlogs in basic infrastructure, twists, scandals and corruption besieging municipalities – from the State of the Province to Budget addresses that follow Sona.
It provides a wealth of invaluable detail about the government’s stance on, for example, poor performance by municipal officials. But this very detail fails to allay doubts about the lack of political will to deal effectively with municipalities’ challenges.
Municipal performance
In a report titled “15 years of developmental and democratic local government”, the South African Local Government Association – the protector and enforcer of the rights of municipalities – correctly asserts that “despite the compliance burden created by over-regulation of the sector, many of them still deliver a full basket of their mandated services”.
This leads me to another feature of the reports on local government that relate to the human and organisational factors. For instance, we need to ask, why is the sector over-regulated? Who makes these regulations?
Apart from the myriad laws and regulations that municipalities must comply with, cadre deployment and consequence management are just as significant for optimal municipal performance.
The fact is that dysfunctionality in municipalities must be viewed as the result of political expediency rather than legislative complexity. It is undoubtedly important to know why people without the requisite technical and managerial skills are hired to oversee municipal finances and critical operations.
It is even more important to know why this trend continues despite credible evidence of a collapsing system. A helpful answer to this question is that the simultaneous failure of accountability and transparency is sufficient to cause the implosion of municipalities, with disastrous consequences for vulnerable communities.
Sadly, though, annual reports of the auditor-general on the finances of municipalities demonstrate how this sector remains a cash cow for criminals masquerading as representatives of communities.
Shift towards basics
The preceding discussion has demonstrated the inadequacy of the municipal regulatory systems in the absence of political will to ensure good governance. By now, we know that there are sufficient rigorous procedures and standards, but ensuring compliance remains elusive.
The message is clear. There is an urgent need to revisit the excessive powers that political bearers have over municipal managers and financial officers. It is not enough to know that the government has a zero-tolerance approach to fraud, corrupt activities or acts of dishonesty.
Unless we see a shift in the simplistic cycles of rhetoric about what will be done to arrest the implosion of municipalities, civil society remains the hope of South Africans in their quest for responsible and responsive local governance.
* Prof Sethulego Matebesi is an Associate professor and the head of Sociology at the University of the Free State.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of IOL or of title sites.