Modulasetulo wa Khansele ya Boset?haba ya Diporofense Rre Mahlangu, Moporesitdente Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma, Motlatsam-Modulasetulo wa Khansele ya Boset?haba ya Diporofense Mme Thandi Memela, maloko a a tlotlegang ... (Translation of Setswana paragraph follows.)
[Cllr P KGOSIENG (Salga): Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Mr Mahlangu; President Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma; Deputy Chairperson of the National Council of Provinces, Ms Thandi Memela; hon members ...]
... our continental guests from Nigeria, distinguished guests, ladies and gentleman, allow me to convey the most profound apology from the Salga national chairperson for his inability to attend this sitting. He is abroad at the moment and has requested me to convey his greetings to the President and to the members of this august House.
It is indeed an honour and a privilege to address this sitting a month before we complete a full decade of democratic developmental local government since 5 December 2000.
The President, in his recent address to the mayors and municipal managers in Khayelitsha in the Western Cape, adequately and aptly captured the current local government situation. He indicated that discussions about service delivery take place against the backdrop of the impact of the global economic crisis which is depleting the resources of municipalities. Secondly, he noted that many municipalities face serious governance challenges due to internal political power struggles and, thirdly, that there is a glaring need to strengthen the basic administrative systems and institutional capacity of many municipalities.
Please allow me to restate the point that, as we've gathered on this important occasion, we are under no illusion that local government faces many challenges. However, we remain optimistic. We know that we can do more, whatever the challenges that we are faced with: ongoing urbanisation and migration, the need to grow our economy and create jobs, the extensive service delivery needs, the negative impacts of the globalising world and the many complexities that we have to grapple with on a day-to-day basis in rural and urban, big and small municipalities.
Whilst we remain painfully aware of our shortcomings, we also know that amongst us resides a wealth of accumulated good practices and experience. We need to continually and carefully identify these, not merely to copy what others do, but to seek to adapt it to the specific local municipal reality. It is regrettable that not much work is being done in this direction.
One of the key developments in the current period has been the mushrooming of the so-called community service delivery protests. Reports suggest that just over 13% of the major service delivery protests recorded since 2004 took place within the first six months of this year. Already the figures show that service delivery protests have exceeded those of 2007 and 2008 and have reached 69 in October 2009, overshooting the peak of 35 recorded in 2005.
From reading these reports, one can make the following observations: the protests seem to be shifting away from the metro areas; there is a significant rise in protests in the North West; Gauteng accounts for 30% of protests overall, followed by the North West at 17%; and, interestingly, the Free State seems to have dropped from accounting for 25% of all protests to accounting for about 16%.
Some of the issues raised by protesters include the apparent dissatisfaction and disgruntlement with the administration and management of municipalities; the vexed cross-boundary processes; the service delivery challenges; intrapolitical party conflicts; greed and crass materialism; and general perceptions of corruption.
Whatever views we may hold of those who have initiated and/or led these protests, their motives or the issues they raise, we cannot run away from the fact that the conditions in which our people live require efforts aimed at improving their quality of life and the elimination of poverty.
There is a clear need to keep our eye on the ball - this being to address issues of poverty and development, and to avoid being distracted and losing focus.
There is a body of evidence which suggests that local government tends to communicate less with communities compared to provincial and national government. We, as local government, need to seriously consider building adequate communication capacity or related basic infrastructure to address this problem. This may include the sharing of centrally located communication resources amongst a cluster of municipalities.
On the question of protests, what is particularly worrying is the fact that some of these have turned violent and anarchic. The President has spoken quite clearly on this matter. We should remain unequivocal in condemning all acts of violence. Whilst protests and similar activities are allowed in our democracy, these remain legitimate only if they are carried out within the framework of the Constitution and the relevant legislation. Our voice will become even louder if it is reinforced by all our political parties and organisations of civil society.
Of further concern is the fact that an assessment conducted by Salga also indicates an increase in the implementation of section 106 of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act and section 139 of the Constitution.
The information at our disposal seems to suggest that there are at least 11 municipalities under section 139 intervention; there is inconsistency on the part of provinces about consulting or even informing Salga when they intervene; in many cases municipalities only consult Salga when an intervention is pending, and sometimes after the fact; the NCOP, when faced with these interventions, for whatever reason, has been unable to ensure consultation with Salga or other relevant institutions; and outcomes of court actions challenging the interventions suggest that provincial governments are failing to follow proper procedures when implementing the above-mentioned.