Municipalities bear the brunt of migration woes, says Salga president

The president of the SA Local Government Association (Salga), Bheki Stofile, has called for migration and immigration pressures to be addressed honestly.

He complained that municipalities had to absorb the pressures created by border management national policy and regional economic instability while not being legislatively mandated to do so.

“When food poisoning incidents occur, when spaza shop licensing becomes a national debate, when informal settlements grow, and when public health risks emerge, the municipality becomes the public face of the problem. Border control is not a municipal function and these unfunded pressures must be recognised as such.”

Speaking at a council of mayors gathering in Ekurhuleni, he insisted that local government should not be blamed for consequences it did not create and not be expected to resolve problems it was never resourced to carry.

The meeting brings together various mayors and speakers, with this particular meeting aimed at paving the way for “transitional arrangements” ahead of the upcoming local government elections.

“We meet at a decisive moment for local government and for the country. In a few months, on November 4, South Africa will return to the polls for the seventh democratic local government elections. That election will bring to a close a term that began on November 1 2021, a term that has tested the patience, resilience and leadership of every mayor in this room.”

He urged the council of mayors to do more than just review programmes or exchange reports, saying it must reflect honestly on the journey from 2021 to now.

“This term has been one of the most difficult periods faced by democratic local government since 1994. Mayors have led through the aftershocks of the pandemic, weak economic growth, unemployment, ageing infrastructure, electricity instability, water pressure, rising migration demands, public anger and the painful decline in household affordability.”

Stofile described this state of affairs as the strength and burden of local government.

“The architecture of our constitution places municipalities closest to the people, not as a junior sphere but as a distinct sphere with democratic authority, constitutional functions and developmental obligations.”

He called on co-operative governance to “move from polite language and transform into real funding arrangements, real accountability, real planning and real support”.

The Salga leader hailed mayors for carrying communities through a litany of challenges, including budget pressures, coalition instability in some municipalities, rising service demands and community protest.

While commending some municipalities for good performances, he conceded that some have struggled, which is what placed many under severe public scrutiny.

Despite this, he claimed that this was part of a bigger problem that manifested itself through the spheres of government.

“Yet, even where criticism has been harsh, it must be remembered that many of the pressures that land at municipal doors are created elsewhere in the system and are passed down without matching resources.”

According to Stofile, this is why the review of the 1998 White Paper on local government must not be a paper exercise.

“The local government system requires renewal, but renewal without money is a slogan. If the revised White Paper does not confront the funding formula, it will not resolve the crisis at the centre of municipalities.

“We cannot redesign municipal obligations while leaving the revenue base wounded. We cannot speak about capable, developmental and economically active municipalities while the fiscal architecture is unable to carry that ambition.”

He lamented how municipalities were expected to do more with less, saying that revenue was the lifeblood of any institution.

“Without reliable revenue, municipalities cannot maintain infrastructure, pay creditors, retain engineers, respond to disasters, support indigent households or build local economic platforms.

“Municipal debtors are rising, grants are insufficient, bulk service costs are escalating and reforms in energy and water are weakening historic revenue streams without creating replacement mechanisms. This contradiction cannot continue if we want a stable republic.”

The transformation required, according to Stofile, is an insistence on a funding model that recognises the real cost of service delivery against the affordability limits of communities.

“We must also insist that tariff reforms, cost-of-supply studies and ring-fencing proposals do not quietly destroy the redistributive character of local government. Cross-subsidisation has allowed those who can pay to help support those who cannot.

He warned that should every revenue stream be sealed off without developmental thinking, the poor will reap the worst consequences and municipalities will lose the flexibility needed to hold communities together.

“We must demand a funding formula that matches the constitutional promise, protect municipal revenue while modernising systems, support businesses without surrendering the public interest, participate in the energy economy rather than be displaced by it, and build rural and urban economies from their own strengths.

“As this term draws to a close, we must defend the dignity of local government and prepare the next term with clarity. We must insist that municipalities are not junior partners in the republic,” said Stofile.

The gathering concludes on Thursday.

TimesLIVE