Deputy Speaker, Ministers, Deputy Ministers and hon members, in his January 8 Statement, the President of the ANC, President Jacob Zuma, stated that local government was not working as effectively as it should.
He went on to say that the report on the state of local government indicated that systems in many municipalities were characterised by critical problems and challenges. These include dysfunctional councils, ineffective professional administration, weak or absent mechanisms for local democracy and weak municipal performance management.
We are all very aware that local government plays a key role in reconstruction and development in our country. Despite the great progress that has been made in many areas, the state of local government report informs us that local government is in distress, and there are worrying trends and signs that the progress and successes achieved thus far are being undermined.
The Local Government Turnaround Strategy, which emanates from this report, amongst other things, is aimed at counteracting forces that are undermining our local government system. Various causes for these problems were identified, three of them being policy and legislative factors, weaknesses in monitoring systems and political factors.
The intention of our organisation, the ruling party, is to build a responsive, accountable, effective and efficient local government system. We also remind ourselves that building a democratic and accountable government for local communities is a constitutional requirement.
Gedurende die oorsigbesoeke aan munisipaliteite was raadpleging en terugvoering van sommige raadslede aan die gemeenskap een van die punte wat gedurig opgehaal is. Hierdie aspek is in die vergaderings wat met die publiek gehou was, genoem. Die wysiging in die wetgewing wat vandag voor ons dien, is juis om sulke en soortgelyke probleme aan te spreek. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraph follows.)
[During the oversight visits to municipalities consultation with and feedback to the community by certain councillors was one of the issues that was raised constantly. This aspect was raised in the meetings with the public. The amendment to the legislation before us today is precisely to address such and similar problems.]
The Local Government: Municipal Systems Act of 2000 provided a framework for local government public administration, human resource development and personnel administration. It gave municipalities the autonomy to develop and adopt systems and procedures to ensure fair, efficient, effective and transparent personnel administration.
As much as the Act empowered the Minister to set norms and standards with regard to personnel matters, it did not give the Minister effective regulatory powers relating to these matters. In 2008, the Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Act attempted to remedy the situation by giving the Minister more direct regulatory powers. These amendments, however, proved to be insufficient.
The Bill before us today seeks to amend the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act, making further provision for the appointment of municipal managers and managers directly accountable to them, and to provide for procedures and competency criteria for such appointments.
In order to build this responsive, accountable, effective and efficient local government system that was alluded to, municipalities need to become sites of excellence, with office bearers and public servants who are efficient, effective and accountable, and who carry out their duties with pride.
It will become a requirement that vacant positions for municipal managers and managers accountable to them must be advertised nationally, in order to draw from a huge pool of candidates, nationwide. The Bill goes further to say that the person appointed must at least have the necessary skills, expertise, competencies and qualifications, as prescribed. Should the person appointed not meet the necessary requirements, the appointment then becomes null and void.
The Bill addresses the issue of people acting in the position of municipal managers and managers accountable to them. When these positions remain vacant for long periods, it presents problems and, ultimately, challenges to service delivery. It is now prescribed that people may only act for a period of three months and if, because of any special circumstances, this period needs to be extended, the municipality needs to get permission from the MEC.
Hon members, we are all aware that filling these positions in metros and bigger towns around our country is not a problem. The challenge lies in rural areas, which are still struggling and sometimes lack the capacity and resources they need to fulfil their functions. The Bill now makes provision for such a municipalities, in the event of their not being able to fill these positions, to request the MEC for local government to second a person to act in that position.
An important section of this Bill relates to compliance and timeframes. Should a person appointed as a municipal manager or manager accountable to them be in contravention of the Bill, the MEC for local government must, within 14 days of receiving the information, take the appropriate steps to enforce compliance by the municipality.
The principal Act refers to the performance agreement being concluded in a reasonable amount of time after the person has been appointed. The Bill now prescribes that the performance contract must be concluded within a period of 60 days after the appointment has been made, failing which the appointment lapses.
Section 66 of the amending Bill states that a staff establishment needs to be developed and submitted to the municipal council for approval and that no person may be appointed unless the post is provided for by this staff establishment. Any appointment made contrary to this then becomes null and void.
It then goes further to say that any councillors who vote in favour of the appointment of a person knowing that that appointment was in contravention of the Act will be held liable for fruitless and wasteful expenditure that may result from an invalid appointment.
Another new insertion into the Bill is section 56A, which has already been alluded to, regarding the limitation of political rights of municipal managers and managers directly accountable to them. It must be stated here that this insertion stems directly from the policy position taken by the ANC at the national general council held in September last year, which also confirmed the national executive committee decisions announced by the President previously.
This section prevents municipal managers and managers accountable to them from holding political office. Political office is then defined as "officials of a political party". It is important to qualify here that other political rights of senior managers are unaffected by the amendment and they remain entitled to enjoy and exercise these rights freely.
At this stage, I want to say to the hon Lorimer that he was not very satisfied when this was not in the Bill. Today we find it in the Bill and he is still not satisfied, so we do not know when the DA will ever be satisfied. Furthermore, amazingly, their bed partner, the ID, is satisfied with this, so one would like to see what is going to happen in future when they cannot agree on issues. [Interjections.]
Section 67 of the Act states that municipalities must develop and adopt systems and procedures to ensure the fair, efficient, effective and transparent administration of personnel. To ensure stability and consistency in the local government workforce, this section is amended to ensure that these systems and procedures are consistent with uniform standards prescribed by the Minister through regulation.
Lastly, there is the amendment of Schedule 1, which has also been alluded to, which is the disciplinary code for councillors. This prevents councillors from voting in favour of resolutions before a council or a committee of council that are in conflict with legislation applicable to local government. This therefore means that every councillor, before voting on any matter, needs to be very sure of what they are aware of and that they are aware of what they are voting for.
Hon members, the amendments that I have alluded to all relate to improving performance and professionalism in the local government sector. Improved performance and professionalism in the local government sector can only improve municipal service delivery, thereby ensuring that together we can build better communities. I thank you.