Chairperson, the Local Government: Municipal Systems Bill is a testimony to our Government's commitment to improve the quality of life in all communities by promoting strong, effective and accountable local government.
It is the culmination of a long process which started in 1993 with the establishment of the Local Government Negotiating Forum. The mission of this forum was to contribute to the bringing about of a democratic, nonracial, nonsexist and financially viable local government system.
In July 1993 the forum resolved that the transition to nonracial local government would be implemented in three phases. The first was the preinterim phase, in which all existing local authorities would be replaced by nominated transitional, local and metropolitan councils. The second phase was the interim phase in which elections would be held for transitional councils. In the third and final phase, a final constitutional model for local government would be implemented.
The Local Government: Municipal Systems Bill represents the final phase in this process. It builds on the strong foundation that has already been laid by the White Paper on Local Government as well as the Local Government Transition Act, the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, the Local Government: Municipal Demarcation Act and other legislation dealing with the transformation of local government.
Municipal government is all about the delivery of service. As the tier of government that is closest to our people, the municipalities have the responsibility of putting into practice the Government's development plans. While municipal councils in some areas have made significant progress in addressing backlogs and extending services, we continue to be confronted with infrastructural disparities and inequalities in many others, caused by a variety of factors including competition among different municipalities.
An example of this is the tussle between the Cape Town City Council and the Cape Metropolitan Council over the spending of funds designated for infrastructural development in the poor areas.
As much as a third of these funds remain unused because of a lack of consensus on where they should be spent. Without proper guidelines on municipal planning and intermunicipal co-operation, situations like this will continue to arise. This clearly indicates the inadequacy of the existing municipal institutional framework.
This is why the Local Government: Municipal Systems Bill is such an important piece of legislation. It will require municipalities to adopt integrated development plans, which must be aligned with, and complement the development plans and strategies of other affected municipalities.
A municipality's integrated development plan must set out the overall strategy for achieving its developmental objectives and include the municipality's strategies for mobilising resources and capacity and for transforming its service delivery mechanisms. As part of its integrated development planning process, a municipality should consider which services could best be provided directly by itself, and which services could best be provided by forming partnerships with the public sector, private sector or NGOs.
It is these municipal service partnerships that I now want to address. The Department of Provincial and Local Government has estimated our municipal infrastructure and service backlog to be about R50 billion. Furthermore, it is feared that if we are to address these backlogs through public-sector resources alone, many communities may only receive services in the year 2065.
In addition, we are also confronted with the reality that many municipalities lack the necessary capacity and finances to improve and extend the delivery of services to the communities they serve. This is particularly true of municipalities in rural areas. These things are happening at a time when the demand for basic services continues to outpace the available Government finances.
All of these factors point to one very important issue, and that is that municipalities will have to look for innovative ways of providing and accelerating the delivery of basic services. Public-private partnerships are one such innovation. This combination brings together the respective talents of each to deliver what has traditionally been considered a Government activity. Public-private partnerships will enable municipal governments to meet the demands for public services, while using less of their own scarce resources and still maintaining, or even improving, the quality of services offered.
Although I accept that there are many benefits to be gained from public- private partnerships, I still believe that Government should retain the responsibility of ensuring that the wider public interest is safeguarded. This can be done by setting and monitoring safety, quality and performance standards for privatised services, and by enforcing those standards. [Applause.]