Hon Chairperson, our Ministers of Human Settlements and for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, members of the SA Local Government Association, who are executive members in their own right, and hon members, in the interests of honesty, let me say that we, the committee, have received an apology from the Deputy Minister for Co- operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, saying that he is outside.
Over the past 19 years, the ANC government has done a lot to bring about a local government system that advances participatory democracy and maximises the opportunities for local economic development through the integration and co-ordination of resources, programmes and delivery structures. These are critical components of a developmental local government and their choice was informed by an in-depth analysis of the socioeconomic conditions that afflict our poor.
From the outset we, as the ANC, needed to make sure that when we say, -A better life for all|, we mean that. Moving from slogan to practice, the ANC has made significant strides in local government transformation, ensuring that the majority of our people have access to the basic necessities of life. Historical analysis will tell anyone - even those who decide to be blind - that, from the TRC to where we are now, things are different. There is definitely proper governance at local level in most of our municipalities. The cornerstone of the ANC government programme, as we said, is redistribution and poverty eradication. Our people must receive what they need for their basic needs and they must have infrastructure that builds the local economy.
Over the past 19 years, the ANC has made massive strides in extending this service to our people. From the Community Survey of 2007 we have learnt that 92% of our people have water; 69% of our people have sanitation; 81% of our people have electricity; and 64% are receiving refuse removal services. Despite the significant progress made, there are major challenges and major problems. That is why we debate the budget annually. We debate the budget precisely because we want to address the backlog, in an ongoing effort to make sure that a better life for all comes to our people.
During this same period, the ANC government has had to grapple with critical challenges, which include deployment processes, accountability, implementation of the code of conduct, the recurrence of instances of political interference in the administration of municipalities, protests associated with service delivery and the disruptive machinations of the opposition.
The ANC noted that, in 2009, an assessment of the state of local government found that problems in municipalities included poor governance, accountability, weak financial management and high vacancy rates in critical senior management posts, in many instances. We have analysed these as a committee now, and there is a positive way to improve the situation from both the national and provincial governments through intergovernmental relations processes. While we appreciate the fact that there is an ongoing programme aimed at turning the above situation around, we nonetheless wish to urge the department to move with haste in implementing the programme, as well as to continue the bilaterals with the affected, weak municipalities.
We must do all of the above, so that we can achieve the objectives of the Local Government Turnaround Strategy. On behalf of the committee, we also wish to welcome the report that is envisaged in the near future from the department. The Local Government Turnaround Strategy aims to restore the confidence of the majority of South Africans in municipalities as the primary delivery organ of the developmental state at local level; and to rebuild and improve the basic requirements for a functional, responsive, accountable, effective and efficient developmental local government.
Local government is at the coalface of service delivery. The ANC believes that nothing must ever be allowed to stand in the way of improving the lives of our people. As a proponent of a developmental state and a developmental local government, the ANC consistently intervenes to turn around the challenges that face municipalities. During the 53rd national conference, ANC delegates applied their collective wisdom to the challenges mentioned above. They noted that to deepen the national democratic revolution and to accelerate service delivery and development, we needed a stronger developmental state and a more integrated co-operative governance system. The more we build a developmental state, the more we would create the conditions for a more integrated co-operative governance system and the more we would be creating the conditions for a developmental state that would achieve the objectives of the needs of our people.
The 53rd national conference of the ANC then proceeded to resolve that, firstly, the powers and functions of the three spheres of government should be reviewed to provide greater clarity and to facilitate effective service delivery and development; and secondly, there was a need for national interventions in provinces to be in synergy with provincial interventions in municipalities.
I think here that the national department must really put in more effort, for when provincial governments intervene at municipal level, there is a serious lack of capacity at provincial level. Equally, we noticed, as we moved around doing oversight visits, that intervention must be accompanied by very, very serious capacity plus funding. In this regard, the department must make an in-depth analysis of the causes of the intervention. What is also required is that the interventions should be co-ordinated, systematic and planned, so as to maximise the sustainability of their impact, and also to ensure that the benefits of the resources that may be invested in the interventions are maximised.
As the committee, our experience is that interventions are necessitated by, inter alia, historical issues of spatial inequality, where economic growth is difficult in a rural municipality; and by capacity matters, where, as I mentioned, both at municipal and at the level of some provinces, there are inappropriate skills, qualifications and competence. We believe these things should be addressed when we pass the Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Act. We need an effort or a mechanism that will ensure that the Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Act is now put into practice. It is an obligation on the municipalities.
Intraparty factional issues are another cause of interventions, where having a quorum becomes a problem because a certain faction will not attend a certain municipal meeting. Another thing is party- political differences. You will find that some municipalities are run by a coalition or by a hung parliament of sorts. In those cases, the quorum suffers. No decision is taken, so no service delivery occurs.
These are things that are beyond government. They are issues of a political nature. All parties involved in these particular municipalities must note this, to ensure that people do not suffer because of party-political differences. We noted some of these issues when we went to KwaZulu-Natal, in particular in Imbabazane Local Municipality. We also observed it in the Western Cape, particularly in such coalition- like municipalities. They are creating a serious problem. We need to move beyond the government; beyond the state. As parties, we must be mature enough politically to give those who govern a chance to govern and analyse the person objectively in terms of whether this person meets the systems and required procedures. Otherwise, our people will vote and vote for nothing.
As a committee, we also support the differentiated approach of the department because when you move to other provinces, with a village here and another village 300 km to 500 km away, it becomes a ward. Wards are formed by a population, not by a geographical space, and therefore it is difficult to serve that type of ward. That differentiated approach must be implemented. Municipalities exercise different powers and functions from a common list, which is based on the very same differentiation we are talking about: differentiation in the scope of the integrated development plan, funding, support and capacity-building. How we help municipalities to raise revenue is also key.
It is important that the ANC government continues its tradition of listening to the people. We have come from Taking Parliament to the People and from various national, council and provincial weeks, and the Ministers', premiers' and MECs' izimbizo. What do we do with those issues that are raised? We need a particular way of making sure that these things are being addressed.
In conclusion, the committee will be hosting a demarcation summit, which will require assistance from the Ministry, so that the public and Members of Parliament understand the impact of demarcation in terms of how municipalities are run. [Applause.]