Piet le Roux, CEO of public interest business organisation Sakeliga, says if President Cyril Ramaphosa is serious about “best practice” municipalities, then the government — from national to local level — needs to let the private sector and civil society play a bigger role.
“Our municipalities are collapsing across the country, so to talk about adopting best practice is not a realistic goal. Just getting the basics right is the best we can ask for,” Le Roux says.
Ramaphosa told a just energy transition (JET) municipal conference in Johannesburg this week that municipalities need to “adopt best practice” and be “the best of the best”.
But Le Roux notes: “Most of our municipalities don’t have even the most basic elements of professionalism, so we should not set our sights on being the best of the best right now, just on doing the basics. Rivers around our towns are polluted; town electricity grids are falling apart; water isn’t being delivered; refuse removal isn’t taking place; and municipalities don’t practise the most basic accounting principles, starting with the appointment of qualified accountants.”
Ramaphosa’s speech was “very similar” to one he made two years ago when he said the time for talking was over, political contestation and self-enrichment in municipalities was wreaking havoc and must come to an end and local government should employ people who can perform the functions they are responsible for and carry them out in an accountable, transparent, efficient, effective and responsible manner.
“So while I agree with him that there is a problem, I don’t find it encouraging that he’s once again saying that something now needs to be done.”
Civil society and business organisations must be allowed to play a more direct role in the functioning of municipalities or at least not be prevented from conducting alternative administrative and service delivery functions where the municipality is absent, he says.
Two weeks ago Sakeliga won a punitive costs order against the department of co-operative governance & traditional affairs (Cogta), and Ramaphosa as a respondent in the case, after long, costly and aggressively resisted litigation to get the department to intervene in a service delivery crisis in Ditsobotla municipality in North West, which forced dairy giant Clover to close its cheese-making plant in Lichtenburg.
“If the president and his government are serious about fixing municipalities then they should stop their lawfare against those who want to help,” says Le Roux.
He hopes that under the government of national unity Cogta will play its constitutionally mandated supervisory role in local government more effectively. “We need more scrutiny of what’s going on in municipalities from the government.”
Parliamentary oversight mechanisms, including the portfolio committee and the auditor-general, have not fixed the problems. According to the latest AG report the number of clean audits declined and fruitless and wasteful expenditure by municipalities almost doubled in 2022/2023 from the previous year.
Municipalities need to be compelled to allow civil society, community groups and local business organisations to play a more direct role, says Le Roux.
“We’re way too far down the road to just rely on the GNU or some new efficiency at parliamentary level. If the government is sincere about best-practice municipalities, then there must be a policy decision reflecting that.”
There’s still huge pushback from municipalities when willing and capable entities offer their assistance.
“Without a willingness to co-operate with the private sector or bona fide community structures such as ratepayers, business chambers and area groups, municipalities as entities of successful administration won’t even get off the ground.”
Through this jurisprudence will emerge to define new roles and areas of responsibility for the private sector, civil society and businesses in these towns to restore order, even if municipalities don’t get their act together
The only difference between Ramaphosa’s 2022 speech and his remarks this week was the emphasis on the just transition, Le Roux says.
“But what’s being lost in the weeds here is a clear sight of the problem. In many towns there is such an extensive collapse of service delivery that making JET a focus of municipal recovery is not starting at the right place. What’s required in South Africa now is a focus on basics, and JET I don’t think is part of the basics we should be focusing on.”
Ramaphosa said municipalities needed to be in the driving seat of JET. But if that’s the case, says Le Roux, there won’t be a JET because nobody will invest in any project being driven by dysfunctional municipalities.
Key to the delivery of JET projects is the delivery of infrastructure projects, he says, and key to these are public-private partnerships. But standing in the way of successful PPPs are sectional interests at local and provincial political level around tenders.
“Whether you’re talking about managing the electricity grid of a town or managing the sewage system, there’s a tender process, and in that tender process there is so much political infighting that the tenders are invariably taken on review. It’s a very unattractive process and it’s a big reason we’re not seeing successful PPPs or projects coming through.”
Another reason is BEE requirements. These have been less of an issue since a Constitutional Court victory two years ago, the culmination of five years of litigation by Sakeliga, led to the setting aside of then finance minister Pravin Gordhan’s 2017 preferential procurement regulations.
But Le Roux says the new Public Procurement Act Ramaphosa signed a few weeks ago is going to increase the uncertainty, risks and costs of dealing with the government, leading to less interest from the private sector.
“So broken politics and ideological requirements will impede the best-practice delivery Ramaphosa talks about.”
He says the act, if and when it is promulgated, will again increase the costs and uncertainty of tendering.
“It will be a major obstacle to the delivery of successful projects, without which there’s no chance of municipalities delivering best practice performance.”
He says he does not see municipal performance improving much any time soon, “not from the government’s side”.
“That is why we and other organisations are pursuing a very expensive and time-consuming but absolutely necessary litigation process across the country. Through this jurisprudence will emerge to define new roles and areas of responsibility for the private sector, civil society and businesses in these towns to restore order, even if municipalities don’t get their act together.”
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.