No easy way out of a complex situation {writer: Piet Coetzer}

Perhaps it has come too late for this year’s round of wage negotiations at local government level, but the Ministerial Strategic Team formed in early August this year between the government and unions could have a positive impact on service delivery at municipal level in months to come.

Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Sicelo Shiceka announced in the first week of August that “the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) and the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union (IMATU) will form part of the newly established Ministerial Strategic Team”.

He said the team will play a leading role in avoiding the conflict between the employer, labour unions and the community, while addressing the root causes of the prevailing challenges.

The minister’s announcement came after a wave of protest at municipal level, which often turned violent, hit most provinces over a period of weeks this winter. The spark in almost all instances has been grievances over the poor levels of service delivery in certain areas.

The situation was aggravated when municipal workers went on strike over pay disputes. Not only were the protests highly disruptive and destructive to existing infrastructure in some instances, but there were also five deaths.

Matters became so tense that there were commentators who began using terms such as “the poor’s rebellion”. Others expressed fears that the proliferation of the chaotic protest action was creating circumstances that could substantially be exploited by criminal elements in society.

If service delivery is inadequate and amenities such as housing in short supply, and the high levels of unemployment during the present tough economic times are added to the mix, the dangers of a reoccurrence of last year’s incidents of xenophobic flare-ups also increased dramatically.

As 24 serious protests currently seemed to be gathering momentum, the data service, Municipal IQ, warned that unless the government accelerated service delivery, protests from poor communities are likely to escalate.

It also pointed out that the rate of protests was exceeding that of previous years.

There are also fears that as the time for the general municipal elections of 2011 draws closer, the danger for disruption in dissatisfied communities would rise.

It is expected that the elections would very keenly be contested by most political parties in all provinces. Campaign time could become politically and socially
very explosive.

Many reasons are given for the protests that have been experienced, including the high unemployment rate. The primary reason seems to be dissatisfaction with the delivery of very basic municipal services such as running water, electricity, toilets (particularly in informal settlements), poor infrastructure and the lack of proper housing. In July, Minister Shiceka instituted a countrywide assessment of municipalities to determine where they are struggling and how they can be assisted.

He said at the time that some municipalities were in a state of paralysis and dysfunctional, and warned that his department was ready to invoke Section 106 of the Municipal Act. This would involve close monitoring of the daily running of municipalities and taking control of failing municipalities where necessary.

He also said that initiatives, such as an incentive scheme, talent management and training and development, would be introduced to create an environment which makes working for municipalities more attractive, and to retain skills at local government level.

About the Ministerial Strategic Team, the minister said he has “taken this initiative because we believe that for workers to accelerate good quality services to the masses in local government, there must be a good working relationship between the employer body and the labour unions.

“The challenges faced by our municipalities need a collective approach, as government alone cannot resolve these issues,” he said.

“In this way, we want to work together in pursuit of strategic repositioning of municipalities in order to respond to these prevailing challenges.”

The team will also comprise members from the South African Local Government Association (Salga), National Treasury, Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs as well as the Department of Public Service and Administration.

Shiceka said the team will advise stakeholders on appropriate interventions to deal with the prevailing challenges in municipalities.

“The team will also investigate the genesis of the current service delivery challenges, including fraud and corruption, as well as assist stakeholders to develop a turnaround strategy in local government.

“They will also undertake a comparative assessment of the wage gap between the highest paid employee and the lowest salaried worker in municipalities,” the minister said.

Labour unions and Salga have welcomed the establishment of the Ministerial Strategic Team, which is expected to start its work in September.

SAMWU president Petrus Mashishi said it has been pushing for the establishment of a similar structure for years and now the union is happy about the new team.

“We are... a transformed organisation committed to the improvement of quality services to the masses. We can’t wait any longer to make our contribution (through the Ministerial Strategic Team),” he said.

IMATU president Danie Carstens said it was also happy to be part of a team that aims to improve the well-being of the poor.

“We’ve already identified some of the root causes of the poor service delivery in our municipalities, so the establishment of this team will give us a platform to deal with those issues,” he said.

Salga deputy chairperson Sophie Molokoane-Machika said: “People must not view the initiative as a strategy to weaken the trade unions, but as an effort to fast-track service delivery to the people.”

Certain commentators, however, are of the opinion that the protests are simply about service delivery, but it goes deeper – it is, in fact, a challenge to the development model presently being applied in South Africa.

In a recently published article, Richard Pithouse from Rhodes University argued that it is not helpful to simplify the issue of the protests as merely a matter about service delivery.

“A key barrier towards elite understanding of the five-year hydra-like urban rebellion is that protests are more or less uniformly labelled as ‘service delivery protests’. This label is well suited to those elites who are attracted to the technocratic fantasy of a smooth and post-political development space in which experts engineer rational development from above,” he wrote in the Business Day.

He goes on to argue that “of course, many protests have been organised around demands for services within the current development paradigm and so there certainly are instances in which the term has value.

“But the reason why the automatic use of the term ‘service delivery protest’ obscures more than it illuminates, is that protests are a direct challenge to the post-apartheid development model.”

Professor Nico le Roux from the School of Public Management and Administration at the University of Pretoria pointed out in an article published as far back as 2005, that the 2004 elections were followed by similar demonstrations as were seen this year in 21 local communities for exactly the same reasons.

It would seem as if the promises of delivery that accompany election campaigns, highlight for communities the absence of proper service delivery which they are experiencing and motivate them to challenge the authorities on the issue.

In this regard, Pithouse suggests that “if the state actually engaged with any seriousness with the people to whom it has promised to ‘deliver services’, these kinds of problems could be resolved.

“But the reality is that the State very often imposes development projects on people without any kind of meaningful engagement.

“One reason for this is the pressure to meet ‘delivery targets’ quickly – a pressure that was greatly worsened by the ludicrous and dangerously denialist fantasy of former Housing Minister Lindiwe Sisulu, that shacks could be ‘eradicated by 2014’,” he says.

Sources:

Buanews, as reported by CitiesNetwork; www.sacities.net

Institute for Security Studies, as reported by Polity.org.za;

Business Day; “Burning message to the state in the fire of poor’s rebellion”, 23 July 2009

Mail & Guardian; “A nation united in protest”, 24 July 2009