The backbone of South Africa needs an upgrade – and fast

Decisive action needs to be taken to bring municipalities in South Africa back to fighting weight.

Speaking on Wednesday (16 May) during a budget vote debate, finance minister Enoch Gondongwana said unfunded mandates, expenditure and ineffective revenue management practices have become a hallmark for municipalities resulting in many defaulting on payments to creditors and failing to deliver critical services.

The minister added that personal expenditure is crowding out spending on service delivery and investment.

Founder and executive chairman of Sygnia, Magda Wierzycka, said that failing municipalities affect everything in South Africa – from service delivery to the passing of budgets.

Municipalities are the core of the country and the backbone of the government, she said. Without a stable municipal government, the delivery of services is likely only to be crippled further.

In response to the dire situation across the board, the Treasury has placed 25 municipalities under mandatory intervention under S139(5) of the Constitution, while three municipalities are subject to mandatory intervention under S139(7).

These interventions, empowered by the Constitution, broadly require a provincial government to impose a recovery plan to secure the municipality’s ability to meet its obligation.

Godongwana added that to ensure municipalities can reach their obligations, administration services need to be professionalised – particularly in regard to training chief financial officers and municipal managers.

According to the minister, the Treasury is supporting the countrywide roll-out of training to support the implementation of the Municipal Standard Chart of Accounts (mSCOA), in addition to a number of free tools and training opportunities.

“Over the last 12 months, thirty-one special council induction sessions were conducted for the 43 municipalities identified as being in financial and service delivery crisis. We are not resting on our laurels. Our interventions are beginning to bear fruit,” he said.

Efforts to improve municipalities as well as challenges facing them can be seen in the North West, where Nono Maloyi, the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs, has held a session with all municipalities in the province for a detailed report on service delivery and infrastructure grant spending.

Maloyi said most municipalities are unable to uphold their constitutional mandate of providing services to the communities.

He said that his department would continue to track the performance of municipalities in order to provide the necessary support to ailing municipalities.

Maloyi also cautioned municipalities against using infrastructure grants for unintended purposes.

“These grants must be used for infrastructure development such as the provision of water and sanitation, roads, and stormwater facilities. The usage of infrastructure grants for unintended purposes impacts negatively service delivery.

He called on mayors in the province to strengthen their oversight role in terms of expenditure performance on infrastructure grants and to further expedite service delivery.

“Mayors must ensure that all these grants are not mismanaged or misappropriated, and consequence management must be enforced where necessary”, he said.

Service delivery broadly refers to the duty government has to provide and maintain public services to its people, including things such as road maintenance, electricity supply and water.

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The backbone of South Africa needs an upgrade – and fast