KEVIN ALLAN: How new minister Hlabisa can scare municipalities into action

The new co-operative governance & traditional affairs minister came out swinging last week, threatening to dissolve non-performing municipal councils and replacing councillors.

Velenkosini Hlabisa is leader of the IFP and the first non-ANC politician appointed to lead this ministry, reflecting the influence of the government of national unity (GNU). Hlabisa will be out to prove that the IFP, like the DA and other parties in the GNU previously on the opposition benches, can do a good job in the various ministries they have been given by President Cyril Ramaphosa.

But dissolving a municipality, even a poorly performing one, may prove tricky. Interventions in municipalities are primarily the responsibility of provinces, and it’s only when they fail to act that the minister can step in.

Interventions are authorised by section 139 of the constitution and happen in two key ways. If a municipality is no longer doing its job or fulfilling its functions, the provincial government can issue a directive telling the municipality what to do, or it can appoint an administrator and if the municipality is really inept, dissolve the council.  If there is a financial crisis, the province must intervene in the municipality and again appoint an administrator and/or dissolve the council, and only if it fails to can the national minister then intervene.

However, Municipal IQ’s Section 139 Interventions Monitor shows that of the more than 100 municipalities that have been subjected to intervention in recent years, most remain in this state for multiple years. Umzinyathi district municipality and Abaqulusi municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, as well as Ngaka Modiri Molema district municipality, Tswaing local municipality and Ditsobotla local municipality in the North West, have each spent at least 10 years under intervention with, it must be said, little noticeable change.

like the minister, you may be thinking that if intervention is not working, why aren’t such problematic municipalities simply dissolved? But even this radical step — throwing out the entire council and getting the Electoral Commission of SA in to hold by-elections to elect a new set of councillors — may not result in a change in the performance of a municipality. In the municipalities mentioned above, we have seen two municipal elections take place over a 10-year period and the same political parties (and often the same people) were re-elected both times.

In truth, the problems of local government are systemic and not easily solved. The capacity of municipalities has been run down over decades of transition and poor political and administrative decisions and appointments. Municipal IQ’s compliance and governance index reveals that over a 15-year period municipalities that have experienced stable political and administrative governance, such as in the Western Cape, perform well, whereas municipalities where there are constant political and administrative changes perform poorly.

Municipalities in the North West (where a third of municipalities are deemed by the national department to be dysfunctional) that have endured a decade of ANC infighting with constant changes in councillors and senior managers, are an administrative wasteland, incapable of carrying out the simplest of tasks. The new minister needs to look soberly at such places and decide how best to help. Parachuting in an administrator in a section 139 intervention and expecting them to fix things, as has happened in the past, does not work.

The minister needs to change the political and administrative culture of how municipalities are run. And the regular minister and provincial MEC meetings are an ideal forum to drive this. The proxy wars, factional battles and interparty scrapping that have taken place in provinces over the years using municipalities as battlegrounds have laid waste to previously well-run local councils, with service delivery ignored.

In such localities the winning party or faction sits proudly atop a smouldering ruin of a municipality having won at all costs. The most outrageous of such behaviour has been on display in the self-serving coalitions running some of our most important metros and municipalities.

One of the minister’s priorities must be to immediately start shepherding the new Coalition Bill through parliament. This legislation is badly needed on the ground to stabilise fractious local coalition governments. Political parties must be encouraged to return to the notion that local councillors are servants of the people, elected to oversee service delivery, sometimes in opposition.

On the administrative front, the minister and provincial MECs need to drive home the notion that senior managers in municipalities are not appointed by politicians to be their willing acolytes, but are there to manage complex service delivery functions such as finance and engineering.

While recent amendments to legislation will help ensure more professionals are appointed to senior management positions, such regulations are not taken seriously enough in the majority of municipalities, which still find ways to appoint incompetent people to important posts. When a person is not appointed on merit but because they are the most connected, poor decision-making, maladministration and corruption are all but guaranteed. 

Realistically though, it will take time to build political commitment and effect administrative change, and there are urgent issues that require the minister’s immediate attention to stem the flow of blood in municipalities. The most important of these is municipal debt. Electricity & energy minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa lamented recently that debt for electricity — an eye-watering R78bn — is so high that it risks destabilising the entire country, while Rand Water recently said the R3bn it is owed by municipalities may end up sinking it.

The problem that Hlabisa and finance minister Enoch Godongwana need to address urgently is that municipalities are spending more money than they are collecting. Like the rest of us, municipalities need to make sure their expenditure matches their revenue. It is outrageous that municipalities have for a number of years been able to pass unfunded budgets, justifying bloated expenditure with fantasy revenue figures.

‘Do your jobs’

This results in a situation where within a few months of the start of the financial year revenue runs out. When Eskom or Rand Water ask to be paid for the bulk electricity or water supplied, municipalities simply shrug and say they cannot afford to pay. The minister needs to ensure provinces do not allow their municipalities to pass unfunded budgets. This should be non-negotiable. 

If Hlabisa really wants to scare the worst-performing and most indebted municipalities, intervention or dissolution, where there is a good chance no councillor or employee will actually lose their job, is not the way to do it. He need only threaten to invoke the conditions of the National Treasury’s municipal debt relief support programme, which most of our struggling municipalities have signed up to to alleviate their Eskom debt. The conditions are: pay creditors regularly, collect 80% of own revenue, install smart meters, restrict borrowing, and enforce strict budgeting and reporting.

In other words, “do your jobs”. That would be enough to strike fear into the heart of any recalcitrant councillor or official. 

• Allan, a former special adviser to a previous local government minister, is MD of Municipal IQ.