Lull in service delivery protests may be temporary {writer: Fanie Heyns}

The municipal elections of earlier this year apparently had a dampening impact on service delivery protests, according to research by Municipal IQ, which pointed to only 23 protests in 2011 until May.

That is in strong contrast to the frightening regularity of local government delivery protests in 2009 (105) and 2010 (111).

But this encouraging statistic may merely be masking some worrying and troubling facts, figures and factors about local government and its capacities to deliver.

A low road to economic implosion?

Let us consider dilapidated road networks at local government level, for example.

Minister of Transport Sibusiso Ndebele recently said that portions of the South African road network, particularly those under the jurisdiction of provincial and local government, continue on a down slide mainly as a result of professional skills shortages and inadequate institutional arrangements.

South Africa has a poor road safety record by world standards, with annual fatalities of approximately 265 per million of the population – compared with an international average of 85.

A poorly maintained road substantially increases the risk of road accidents. In 1988, only 10% of our provincial road network was classified as being in a poor and very poor condition. Ten years later, by 2008, that figure had risen to 60%.

Similarly, in 1988, 70% of the provincial road network was measured to be good and very good. By 2008, that figure had dropped to 15%.

Professor Fanie Cloete of the Department of Public Governance at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) says municipal revenue is notoriously low and insufficient to enable municipalities to provide the wide scope of community services at the standards and levels that they should provide them.

As municipalities prioritise the funding of too many programmes with too little income, the sectors that normally are neglected include general training and information technology (IT) upgrades.

This situation is aggravated by other ill-considered spending priorities (for example, millions of rand on Fifa Soccer World Cup expenses, all sorts of celebrations and functions, shiny cars for office bearers, and white elephant projects that are unsuitable for the contexts for which they were designed).

The electronic billing system of the City of Johannesburg is an example that illustrates this last point, notes Prof. Cloete.

He adds that the allocation of projects to incompetent service providers under the guise of black economic empowerment often reduces the little remaining funds available for community development.

Inefficient and ineffective implementation further wastes scarce resources.

Sunette Steyn, professor responsible for the Collaborative Governance and Partnerships Research Programme at the Unisa Institute for Corporate Citizenship, says that an adequate working supply of infrastructure services has long been viewed by academics and policy-makers as a key ingredient for economic development.

Infrastructure shortfalls

An increasing number of observers point to deficient infrastructure as a major obstacle for growth and poverty reduction. This will impact on the objectives of the government to fulfil its electoral mandate as stipulated in its Medium-Term Strategic Framework.

It will impede the government’s ability to achieve the objectives of halving poverty and unemployment by 2014 and ensuring a more equitable distribution of the benefits of economic growth.

Prof. Steyn says the assessment for 2010 shows that out of the total extent of the Gauteng provincial paved road network of 4 248 kilometres, 9% is in very good condition, 27% in a good condition, 33% in a fair condition, 20% in a poor condition and 11% in a very poor condition.

The international benchmark is that a country’s road network should not have more than 10% in a poor and very poor condition. For Gauteng, this statistic is 31%.

Asked what could be done to rectify the situation, Prof. Steyn says productivity can be improved by better planning processes and co-ordination or roads service delivery, roads policies, standards and guidelines, and road funding.

Short- to medium-term management contracts – with a component to build management capacity in local governments – can play an important role in improving planning and management.

An alarming lack of capacity and skills

Recently, in an article in the Financial Mail, Loane Sharp – a labour economist at Adcorp’s ADfusion Trust – said there are 829 000 unfilled positions for highly skilled people in South Africa.

Lack of skills and knowledge at local government level, particularly in positions filled by comrades who have benefited from cadre deployment, has been publicly bemoaned.

Prof. Cloete says skills scarcity exists in all sectors – also in IT and knowledge management in municipalities, big and small – although it is much worse in the smaller municipalities than in the larger ones.

Bad nominations of councillors by political parties and bad appointments by these councillors of officials create a governing system that is guaranteed to underperform at best and completely fail at worst, as is the case with the increasing number of municipalities under administration.

“Against this background, the weak networking capacity of municipalities is a systemic problem,” says Prof. Cloete. “A much larger percentage of national revenue should be allocated to the municipalities, together with the election and appointment of more competent and experienced councillors and officials to spend the larger volumes of funding better… than in the past.”

He adds that the improvement of digital networks should be prioritised, as many municipal functions can be executed much cheaper and easier via digital management and delivery platforms.

Prof. Steyn says one of the reasons given for the lack of skills and experience of municipal managers is the fact that there appears to be no clear demarcation between the business and politics of municipalities, with municipal managers being politically deployed instead of administratively recruited.

Deputy Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Yunus Carrim acknowledged that the provision in the newly amended Municipal Systems Act, which bans political office bearers from serving as municipal employees, is a tacit admission that cadre deployment has not worked.

Available courses

Skilled municipal managers with financial background are needed for smooth implementation of service delivery programmes.

The Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), 2003 specifies the task of a municipal manager as a financial official responsible for the implementation and outcomes of service delivery programmes.

Prof. Steyn says municipal managers are currently ill-equipped for the task at hand.

According to the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, more than a third of the 283 municipalities in South Africa obtained either disclaimers or adverse opinions for the year ended June 2008, owning to municipal managers being ill-qualified and inexperienced.

Minister of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Sicelo Shiceka cited a lack of skills of municipal managers as one of the main reasons for the financial mismanagement of local authorities, which has resulted in poor service delivery, corruption and fraud.

According to the City of Cape Town, one of the most efficient municipalities in South Africa, the MFMA provides for standard financial practices across all South Africa’s municipalities – encompassing all components of financial management. It sets standards of competency, process and practice, which has modernised the approach to budgeting, spending and revenue.

“The standards set by the MFMA are high, and many smaller municipalities struggle to comply in all aspects as confirmed by the high percentage of qualified audit reports from the Auditor-General,” said the City of Cape Town. “The issue is probably one of capacity rather than wilful neglect.

“The MFMA has introduced a discipline into municipal financial management by setting high standards to be attained. The failure has come in a lack of understanding on the part of the legislators as to the actual requirements of local government and, consequently, a lack of support for the training and capacity building of the officials tasked with implementation.”

Prof. Cloete says the Local Government Resource Centre, established and maintained by the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the South African Local Government Association (Salga), is an excellent digital support service from which all municipalities can benefit.

The UJ runs two programmes for more than 600 senior municipal officials and councillors annually, funded by the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSeta). These are formal academic qualifications.

The programmes are the National Certificate in Municipal Governance and the Advanced Certificate in Municipal Governance, the latter which is hosted annually by the Sanlam Centre for Public Management and Governance at the UJ, in partnership with the LGSeta and Salga.

Capacitating local government councillors

According to Dr André Duvenhage, professor and research director for Social Transformation at the North-West University, 96% of elected councillors in 2006 were “new kids on the block”.

Prof. Steyn believes that in many municipalities, the race seems to be for political power and not for improving service delivery.

“Cadre deployment would give rise to dissatisfaction, with those being deployed now gaining access to resources for their own benefit through tender processes.

“These cadres have neither been democratically elected nor appointed based on their skills and experience,” he notes.

What can be done to assist new councillors? Prof. Cloete says Salga has induction programmes, but they are very superficial.

There is a range of short learning programmes in municipal governance, finances and policy-making at National Qualifications Framework levels three to four and five to seven (university level), some accredited by the South African Qualifications Authority and/or LGSeta.

Dr Steyn says universities can play an important role in equipping councillors with the necessary skills by developing and implementing management workshops and short courses with lowered entrance level requirements. “This is in line with the vision of universities to become more relevant and to bring their knowledge base to bear on real-life socio-economic challenges in South Africa,” she adds.

The City of Cape Town invested heavily in training new and returning councillors after the May 2011 local government elections.

A booklet was produced by the municipality in June, which gave insight into the full structure and functioning of the City of Cape Town (download a copy at www.capetown.gov.za).

It is a comprehensive guide that gives councillors an easy reference tool to help them understand the municipality.