Making Local Government Work

Francis Antonie, Director of the Helen Suzman Foundation and Chair for the evening, began by noting that as the evening’s roundtable takes place on the eve of the Municipal Elections, questions around the efficiency, effectiveness and the role of local government are up for discussion. He laid the foundation for the discussion by outlining several questions to frame the debate. These included questions around the capacity of local government, funding issues, the appropriateness of the structures of local government for dealing with corruption, and the susceptibility of the administrative structures to pressures from economic and political elites. He ended by posing the question, “Have we not set local government up for failure?”

David Everatt, Executive Director of the Gauteng City-Region Observatory (GCRO), our first panelist of the evening, began by ardently presenting his thoughts on Francis’s final question. He stated that it is far too early to ask if we have set local government up for failure as the local sphere of government is not a homogenous sphere and needs to be looked at in its own context. He noted the lack of communication between the national and local spheres of government and that the real challenge is trying to work out how to line up government both vertically and horizontally. He emphasised that structures are not going to save local government: the quality of people in local government are. Everatt cautioned against the perceived goodwill associated with the national sphere of government due to parachute initiatives which reflect poorly on local government when  the latter does not have budget or skills to maintain them. He said that important to solving some of the issues relating to local government is that the public understand what the responsibilities of local government actually are. The public must also be aware of their own responsibility in making local government work.

Second to present was Aubrey Matshiqi, a political analyst and Research Fellow at the Helen Suzman Foundation. He began by noting that all of us have a genuine concern about the effectiveness of local government, and that regardless of our frustrations, we all want local government to work. He said that one of the key reasons for the ineffectiveness of local government goes back to the development of the Constitution and the tension between federalist and centralist impulses. He highlighted the importance of selecting the most appropriate delivery model with a suitable balance between strategic interventions and training from national government, together with community input on policies and their implementation from the local government sphere. On a positive note he listed several areas where local government has been successful, in that it has been deracialised, municipal boundaries have been more appropriately drawn, capital grants have been generous and delivery has been predicated on developmental local government to fit into the ideas around a Developmental State. Matshiqi said that the success of local government depends on aspects including, among others, managerial experience, substantial budgets, complex legal requirements and sophisticated processes of decision makers. He noted that the critical problems in local government include stalemates between councils and officials, rivalries between mayors and municipal managers, poor morale, red tape, the appointment of inexperienced and unqualified staff, political appointees over merit-based appointments and a work ethic that is not consistent with a “people first” mentality. He also emphasised that essential to making local government work is the improvement of areas not in the direct control of local government, such as an increased economic growth and better skills provision.

Charles Simkins, Vice President of St Augustine College and a Research Fellow at the Helen Suzman Foundation highlighted a report by the Auditor General which found that one of the key problems in local government was in the conversion of the planning and budgeting stage into implementation and accountability. He noted that although the spheres of government had sophisticated systems of conditional grants, there are still far too many municipalities which are not viable even with higher levels of grants. The problem here, he said, relates to the inadequacy of financial formulas among other things. He also argued that the public must be aware that there are limits to what can be achieved by local government partly due to the problem of getting services out to people who are spread out in lower density areas. He echoed Everatt’s point regarding the responsibilities of local government, saying that local authorities need to identify and educate the public about what local government is empowered to do, compared to what is rather the responsibility of the national sphere of government. From the political perspective, Simkins emphasised the importance of ward councilors being in touch with the mood of their constituencies over service delivery issues in order to diffuse the growth of dissatisfaction which could lead to civil unrest and violent outbursts.

The Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA), Yunus Carrim, spoke specifically to the questions posed by the Chair. He said that one of the key problems that reduces the ability of local government to perform its functions properly is that most parties do not allocate officials who are senior enough to municipalities. He said that financial capacity in local government is limited jointly by a lack of funds and a lack of financial management skills. He also mentioned that capacity problems in municipalities are exacerbated by ineffectual monitoring and support by the national and provincial spheres of government. A significant point made by the Deputy Minister was that a major review of the entire local government system was underway and that a Monitoring, Support and Intervention Bill was being developed to outline more clearly the important role that the national and provincial spheres of government should be playing in ensuring the effectiveness of municipalities. In this regard, he said the powers and functions of all three spheres of government are being reviewed in order to effect a more efficient state. Specific to local government would be the development of a differentiated local government model which would take into account the different sizes and capacities of municipalities.
With regards to funding issues, the Deputy Minister highlighted a key flaw in the funding model of municipalities in that it is based on the assumption that municipalities are able to raise 95% of their own revenue.

One of the key issues debated during the question time was the matter of whether voting for the national, provincial and local government elections should occur at the same time. From the responses it became apparent that such a merger would be likely to benefit the ANC but could swamp smaller political parties. The central issue here would be to determine whether or not a merged election would enhance democracy. Other issues raised during question time included whether South Africa should consider making it a law that people vote, and if we place a higher premium on the right to choose over the importance of voting.
The Helen Suzman Foundation is interested in taking the debate further. If you would like to comment or pose a question, please visit our Blog: Liberal Voices

The Foundation will also make available a publication of the verbatim transcript in due course.