Third of municipalities doing well: Gordhan

Just under a third were not doing well and a third had the potential to do well, he said during a presentation to the presidential local government summit in Midrand, Johannesburg.

 

"We can push performance to two thirds of municipalities performing well. At the same time we must recognise that we do have positive achievements in the last 14 years. We established a whole new municipal regime," Gordhan said.

 

Local government in the country was 14 years old.

 

Gordhan was appointed co-operative governance minister after the May general elections. Two months after his appointment, the

 

Auditor General's local government audit results for 2012/2013 revealed that only nine percent of municipalities received clean audits.

 

The AG found there had been R815 million in fruitless and wasteful expenditure, substantially up from the previous year.

 

In 2016 the country would hold its next local government elections.

 

Gordhan on Thursday pointed out local government's achievements, but also the problems municipalities still faced. The fact that there were now democratic municipalities were part of these achievements.

 

Problems included inadequate public participation at local government level, slow service delivery, unskilled personnel, insufficient institutional capacity, and a low rate of revenue collection.

 

Gordhan echoed President Jacob Zuma when he said local government needed to get back to basics. The number one priority was getting all municipalities out of a dysfunctional state. There needed to be a "brisk response to corruption and fraud".

 

Municipalities which had the potential to do well needed to be supported and pushed. The support needed to continue to keep those doing well in the top spot.

 

Going back to basics meant providing a basket of basic services, Gordhan said. This included fixing street lights, repairing pavements, patching potholes, keeping the municipality clean, cutting grass, and fixing leaking taps.

 

The country's 278 municipalities needed to develop comprehensive infrastructure plans and implement maintenance plans. National and provincial rapid response and technical teams needed to be developed to support municipalities and service delivery interruptions needed to be monitored at a national level.

 

Gordhan said local government needed responsive administration, competent and capable people, and better performance management.

 

Municipalities needed sound financial management. This included proper record keeping, credit control, reduction of wasteful expenditure and functional supply chain management structures with appropriate oversight.

 

The minister said there needed to be substantive community involvement -- regular report-backs by councillors and regular feedback on petitions and complaints.

 

On service delivery there needed to be intergovernmental delivery co-ordination. Zuma had established a service delivery inter-ministerial committee led by Gordhan.

 

The purpose of the team was to fast-track service delivery where there were bottlenecks, quickly respond to areas where there were delivery problems, and ensure improved service delivery.

 

"The back to basics approach relies on municipal political leadership and management to play a significant role," Gordhan said in his presentation.

 

"All of us are accountable to change people's lives and create better prospects for the economy."