Voorsitter, elke ideologie en gepaardgaande beleid word deur die harde werklikheid van die praktyk getoets. Kommunisme en apartheid het nogal lank geneem om deur die praktyk ontbloot te word, maar die ideologie van die nasionale demokratiese revolusie van die ANC, waarvolgens kaders ontplooi word as burgemeesters en topamptenare, met die gepaardgaande luukshede en uitspattige vergoeding te midde van totale onbevoegdheid in baie gevalle, het minder as nege jaar geneem om deur die praktyk ontbloot te word as 'n stelsel wat nie dienste lewer in munisipaliteite nie. Daarom het ons nou al hierdie opstande.
In die negentigerjare met die geleidelike transformasie van plaaslike regering is goeie munisipale diens gelewer, maar sedert 5 Desember 2000, na die eerste volle demokratiese verkiesing, is die nasionale demokratiese revolusie voluit toegepas en swak dienslewering het dit nou ten volle ontbloot as 'n stelsel wat nie kan werk nie. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Mr W P DOMAN: Chairperson, every ideology and accompanying policy is tested by the harsh reality of practice. It took quite some time for communism and apartheid to be exposed by practice, but the ideology of the ANC's national democratic revolution, according to which cadres were deployed as mayors and top officials, along with the luxuries and extravagant remuneration in the midst of total incompetence in most cases, was exposed by its practices in less than nine years as a system that does not facilitate municipal service delivery. That is why we are having all these protests.
With the gradual transformation of local government in the 90s, municipal service delivery was good, but since 5 December 2000, after the first full democratic election, the national democratic revolution was implemented in full force and poor service delivery has now exposed it completely as a system that cannot be successful.]
Therefore, the DA fully agrees with the topic of this discussion. It is a governance problem, and it is brought about by an ideology that demonstrated that it cannot deliver and will lead to more protests. Therefore, we also agree with President Zuma's pronouncements last week that the ANC will no longer wait for the laws of the country to kick in, but will hold its mayors and councillors personally accountable and remove those who transgress or do not perform.
This view that it is the ANC, as a party, that must take responsibility, and the very fact that we, at long last, are allowed to have this debate in Parliament, which the DA has been calling for since last year, bodes well for a possible turnaround strategy for municipalities. This is because we have honesty here, and we have openness. This is progress, and the hon Tsenoli also talked in this vein today, with openness, in addressing the serious issues that we have. However, Chairman, we must start by acknowledging that it is a governance problem, and then we must do something about it. Therefore, the DA calls for the ANC to stop deployment and to let the local people decide on merit. Hold individuals responsible and do not allow them to hide behind the collective or else individuals will never perform, but they will rather only cement their own positions by appointing buddies and awarding contracts to well-connected friends. At the moment, at municipalities, it is more important what your position in the party is than what your obligations are to the public office you occupy.
This is when governance at municipalities goes all wrong. Let me give you a few examples: an executive mayor who doesn't act on the wrongdoing of an official because the official is high up in the ANC, and right there you have the collapse of discipline and performance at that municipality. It can also be the other way around, where mayors and councillors meddle in the domain of officials and actually force them to do illegal things just because they believe that they are politically untouchable.
Another example is an MEC who doesn't act against the nonperformance or even corruption of an executive mayor or municipality out of fear of political retaliation. Then ANC politics is more important than what the laws of the country in terms, in this case, of co-operative governance demand of the public office of the MEC. Or you have the situation where the South African Municipal Workers' Union, Samwu, through their powerful local bosses at certain municipalities actually run those municipalities, instead of the duly elected office bearers.
The governance shortcomings are further demonstrated in what is the priority at many ANC-led municipalities: an expensive mayoral car, overseas trips, large advertisements in papers, always with a picture of the mayor and other seniors, and excessive spending on nonsensical community projects that only benefit a few, instead of aiming to deliver the basic services that should be the core function of a municipality. So, I want to reiterate that it is a governance problem that must be sorted out by the governing party within its own ranks, or else poor service delivery will show up the shortcomings of this ideology more and more.
Apart from this governance problem, I want to state categorically that a municipality needs skilled and dedicated officials to deliver services. Even if councillors are failing dismally, a decent level of services will be delivered if the municipality has competent and hardworking officials. It is common knowledge that the implementation of the national democratic revolution, whereby cadres must occupy all positions, has led to an exodus of skills and experience from local government.
To get service delivery back on track, as a short-term measure, interventions at a substantial number of municipalities will be necessary to allow for the appointment of competent administrators. Some service delivery achievements have been registered with partnerships with the private sector, whereby professional and technical experts have been parachuted into municipalities to assist them. We need much more of this.
Baie munisipaliteite het so 'n slegte naam by professionele mense dat hulle weier om direk vir 'n munisipaliteit te werk. Hulle verkies eerder om, byvoorbeeld, deur die Ontwikkelingsbank van Suider-Afrika by 'n munisipaliteit geplaas te word.
Oor die lang termyn is volhoubare opleidingsprogramme ook nodig om kundigheid te verbeter, maar dit is baie belangrik dat die hele kultuur wat tans by munisipaliteite se werkerskorps aanwesig is, omgekeer moet word sodat dat daar groter toerekenbaarheid, hardwerkendheid, beloning vir uitnemendheid, en trots op skoon oudits en op ho standaarde is. (Translation of Afrikaans paragraphs follows.)
[Many municipalities have such a bad reputation with professional people that they refuse to work directly with a municipality. Instead they prefer, for instance, to be placed at a municipality via the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
Sustainable training programmes to improve skills are also needed in the long term, but it is important that the entire culture that currently prevails among the worker corps of municipalities be reversed in order to promote greater accountability, diligence, reward for excellence, and taking pride in clean audits and high standards.]
You know, it will be one of the most shocking studies if someone were to list the municipal managers of the 283 municipalities since 2000 and what happened to each of them. The list of those who were prosecuted for corruption and maladministration is endless, not to mention those who simply ran away to avoid prosecution, and there is even a number of them who just continued with their bad habits in other municipal positions.
In this regard, the DA welcomes Minister Shiceka's strong stand on corrupt officials all over the country. We fully grant that South Africa has a skills shortage, and especially municipalities in the rural areas are battling to attract professionals and technical people. If the prevailing culture at many municipalities is not turned around, service delivery will remain poor. The time is long overdue for municipalities to appoint on merit and provide for career development on performance, rather than misuse the substantial power it has in this regard.
The Municipal IQ foundation found that by mid-July this year 24 major protests had been recorded. This is close to the entire total, namely 27 for 2008 and 31 for 2007, and is likely to exceed the peak of 35 in 2005.
Minister, the DA supported the budget this year because it believes that under your leadership the budget and its programmes can make a difference for the better. Then we must address the real issues, of which I've only addressed two today, that are hampering service delivery. At the municipalities where the DA governs, it applies the ideology of an open- opportunity society. We appoint on merit, we prioritise service delivery and, therefore, those municipalities excel. I thank you. [Time expired.] [Applause.]