Number of councillors set to pass the 10 000 mark {writer: Stef Terblanche}

Within about six months, South Africans will be going to the polls again – this time for the third municipal elections since the overhaul of South Africa’s local government system in the late 1990s.

The elections could be somewhat disruptive for local governments. Important decisions may be postponed and the focus is likely to shift to talking about service delivery rather than merely doing it.

Furthermore, the elections are likely to mark a turning point for local government in respect of a number of issues aimed at improving municipal management and service delivery.

In this regard, the newly elected councillors and mayors, and their officials, will now have to contend with:

• Newly introduced performance management systems;

• The implementation of municipality-specific turnaround strategies to achieve major improvements in service delivery;

• An amended Local Government Municipal Systems Act, impacting directly on municipal staffing issues, including:

– Persons holding leadership positions in political parties possibly being prohibited in future from being appointed to senior municipal management positions (this will not, however, be a complete ban on cadre deployment, as some commentators are erroneously suggesting);

– An end to the employment of top municipal managers who lack the basic requisite skills;

• The possibility that local government elections in future will be held on the same day as national and provincial elections, with major cost and logistical benefits;

• The possibility that the current system of provinces may be scrapped or altered, with the current relationship between the local and provincial tiers of government being affected;

• A review of the current formula of funding for municipalities, which the government says is flawed and unsustainable; and

• The likelihood of a single civil service structure being established to serve all three tiers of government.

Countdown schedule

But for now, the focus will be on preparations for the elections. These will be held any time between the beginning of March and the end of May next year, as the current term of local governments expires on 2 March and the Constitution stipulates that elections must be held within 90 days thereafter.

The 2011 municipal elections will elect the members of the district, metropolitan and local municipal councils which, in turn, will elect the mayors of the various municipalities.

Municipal elections are held every five years in South Africa.

There are three different categories of municipalities in the country, namely metropolitan municipalities in the major cities; local municipalities in the remaining cities and towns; and district municipalities that are made up of a number of local municipalities.

Voting in local government elections is based on a combination of the direct and proportional representation systems, although there are slight differences for the three categories of local government.

Because of the substantial number of local governments and the dual electoral system involved, local government elections in South Africa represent a massive logistical and organisational challenge for the municipalities and the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) that manages the elections.

Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Sicelo Shiceka, or President Jacob Zuma, will announce the date for the next local government elections in due course. Thereafter, the IEC takes charge.

In terms of the applicable legislation, the IEC must provide an election timetable, appoint officials, conduct voter registration, receive political party and ward candidate lists from parties contesting the elections, decide on the number and location of voting stations, prepare voting materials such as ballot papers, and more.

The government has introduced proposed amendments regarding the above as contained in the Municipal Electoral Amendment Bill currently before parliament.

The government hopes to have these amendments in place before the elections.

Public hearings regarding the Bill already took place on 14 September.

Dealing with previous problems

The Bill is the result of problems identified during both the 2006 local government elections and the 2009 national elections.

In a number of instances, it seeks to harmonise the local government elections with what applies in the national elections – a necessary step if elections for all three tiers of government are to be held simultaneously in future.

The Bill proposes changes to supplement provisions relating to the prescribed election timetable and to insert a related Schedule to the Act; to amend provisions relating to nomination of candidates; to provide for central payments of deposits by a party that contests election in more than one municipality; to empower presiding officers to alter boundaries of voting stations, if necessary; to revise provisions relating to number of party agents at a voting station; to clarify the rights and responsibilities relating to assistance to certain voters; to provide for special votes and the procedure related thereto; to enhance the powers and functions of the IEC and the Electoral Court in relation to the determination and declaration of the result of an election; to provide for further regulation of objections material to the result of an election; and to provide for matters connected therewith.

Other changes have been initiated with a view to the forthcoming elections. The Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) has increased the number of municipal wards across the country in another turning point.

For the first time, all municipalities will have wards with a minimum of four and maximum of 130 wards.

MDB chairperson Landiwe Mahlangu presented the IEC with the final ward demarcations in September so that the Commission can proceed with the preparations for the elections.

She said that for the first time, more than 10 000 council seats, including 4 277 wards, will be contested in eight metropolitan councils, 45 district councils and 231 local municipalities. When redrawing the boundaries of wards, a deviation from the norm not exceeding 15% is allowed.

Upon receiving the new ward demarcations, IEC chairperson Brigalia Bam pointed out the importance of this aspect of the preparations for the elections, saying that “municipal wards are crucial units of our democracy because they serve as core of ward-based development, apart of being regarded as units that hold the electorate more accountable to the people.”

Increase in number of councillors

Mahlangu, however, has confirmed that the increase in the number of wards from 3 895 to 4 277, and the increase of councillors (including proportional representation and part-time councillors) from 9 267 to 10 055, will have budgetary implications, as ratepayers and local governments will have to foot the salary bill of 788 additional councillors.

If the figure of R345 501 for an ordinary councillor’s annual salary, as set down last year by the Independent Commission on Remuneration of Public Office Bearers, the 382 new councillors qualifying for this remuneration will add an additional R131.9 million to the annual local government salary bill. This excludes the salaries of the 406 additional proportional representation and part-time councillors.

Minister Shiceka’s department determines councillors’ salaries according to the size of the municipality, with mayors, speakers and members of the mayoral executive committees receiving higher salaries. The 406 additional proportional representation and part-time councillors will be paid salaries ranging from R156 090 to R284 110 a year, and between R52 030 and R94 703 in annual car allowances.

These additional salaries will be funded largely from revenues collected by municipalities for services and from property rates, with the balance supplemented from the Local Government Equitable Share formula.

The largest number of new councillors will be in KwaZulu-Natal, followed by the Eastern Cape.

According to Mahlangu, wards are viewed as a key element of democracy in local government, as this is where communities can hold their elected representatives directly accountable.

While the legislative, organisational and capacity framework may be in for some changes, not much change is anticipated by analysts on the political or elections outcome front.

It would appear that since the general election last year, municipal by-elections seem to have confirmed three general political trends, namely that the ANC has maintained its majority support in most municipalities in most provinces except the Western Cape; in the Western Cape, the Democratic Alliance has maintained its dominance; and in KwaZulu-Natal, the Inkatha Freedom Party has been losing ground to the ANC.

For most other political parties, the situation seems to be more or less static.

In the interim, given the usual rhetorical frenzy among political parties produced in the run-up to elections, the focus will be firmly on the delivery role of local government.

Speaking at the recent conference hosted by the South African Local Government Association, under the banner of “Repositioning Local Government Human Resource Management for the Enhancement of Service Delivery”, just months before the elections – against a background of service delivery protests, and in lieu of the legislative amendments and turnaround strategies the government has introduced – Minister Shiceka said the depoliticising and professionalisation of South Africa’s local government administration has become critical for stability and good governance at that level.