Municipalities are making residents pay for their failures

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JEREMY MAGGS: South African homeowners are paying significantly more for municipal services than they would have if charges had simply tracked inflation. But behind the rising bills is a bigger question that is being raised – what happens when weak governance, poor financial management and failing infrastructure become costs that municipalities are simply passing on to residents?

Dr Harlan Cloete is a local governance and public leadership research fellow at the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State, and has been applying his mind to this issue. Harlan, a very warm welcome to you. So when municipal bills rise faster than inflation, how much of that ultimately, in your opinion, does come down to poor governance?

HARLAN CLOETE: I think that’s a very important question. If you look at local government, they have got to do two things with the resources that they have. They need to ensure that they deliver services effectively and efficiently. If that is compromised, then you have rising cost because municipalities are complex institutions.

So the problem of municipalities, in our research, is never just one thing, it’s a combination of ailing infrastructure, it’s a combination of revenue collection.

So it’s a complex institution. But the defining determinant is leadership in the institution. If there is no ethical and accountable leadership, if the leadership is not interested in managing the institution, then this is, in many cases, the net effect.

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JEREMY MAGGS: So you’re suggesting that a lot of this is driven by political instability, and it’s difficult for a municipality then to be properly managed when mayors, MMCs (Member of the Mayoral Committee) and senior officials are constantly changing.

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HARLAN CLOETE: Trevor Manuel said government cannot spend what government doesn’t have. So a municipality must collect revenue. It must build partnerships with other spheres of government.

We’ve seen what the Treasury has done lately in terms of withholding funds if there is not sufficient assurance of governance stability there. So, yes, it has a net effect on that.

Citizens, ultimately, Jeremy, want value for their money, and they want the dividend for this democracy and, in many cases, local government has disappointed.

JEREMY MAGGS: So the real problem, as you’ve identified and quoted the former finance minister as saying, is that municipalities are increasingly spending money fixing the consequences rather than providing services. I’m just wondering, though, if we’re at a point where it’s impossible now to pull back.

HARLAN CLOETE: I think I’m a natural optimist but, in many instances in my research work, I speak to local government officials all the time, and there are still some very good municipal officials out there, but the complexity is that you need…

If you look at the definition of a municipality, it’s three legs like a potjie – you need political stability, you need professional bureaucrats who can run the institution and then you need citizens who are informed, who are also participating in active citizenry.

In all of this, we cannot leave all the thinking to government alone. What the National Development Plan has identified is what I call the A, B, C, G model – you need the academic community, the business community, the government and community.

We are entering a state of co governance where we co-create and we cannot leave all the thinking to local government politicians alone.

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JEREMY MAGGS: Harlan, you also talk about an ethical issue as far as this problem is concerned, and I’ve got to wonder if it’s defensible ethically to keep increasing charges when residents can plainly see services deteriorating.

HARLAN CLOETE: I think it’s under the residents’ watch as well. Remember, we have ward committees, and so there’s a big thing about local accountability in that local government ecosystem, it’s what the Auditor-General also keeps pointing out, and we are not insulating effectively, I think, residents, and they bear the brunt of instability in local government. So we do need a reset, hopefully with a white paper that will introduce a new framework.

But ultimately it comes down to ethical and accountable leadership. And the residents should be, we need citizens to become more active like they were in the ‘80s, demanding services from community.

But in many cases, poorer communities cannot go to the courts, and the court, as was the example in the Free State, where the courts in many cases have to intervene to force local government to fulfil their constitutional obligation.

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JEREMY MAGGS: Then, of course, we have the bypass crisis, where wealthier households are simply buying their own solar, water, security and other services, and that is creating a deeper problem for municipalities, effectively two-tier cities.

HARLAN CLOETE: I think a municipality has to balance this, because in many cases, remember, South Africa is the most unequal country in the world. So many municipalities, we’ve got residents who are extremely wealthy and extremely poor. I’m sitting in the Cape Winelands, which is, in my view, the billionaire belt of South Africa.

So municipalities have to balance this, making sure that you deliver services so that it instils confidence in those with resources to pay.

Also, how do we narrow the gap between rich and poor. So it’s not as easy as switching on a light, is what the late Professor Sampie Terreblanche said, governance is complex, and municipalities have to find a balance.

At the end, it’s about dividends for your democracy, are citizens getting value for their money, and right now the answer is no.

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JEREMY MAGGS: So governance is complex, I accept that, and it’s also very easy for all of us to sit on the side and make observations and to criticise. So, Harlan, if you wanted to bring municipal costs under control, what governance reform would you make first?

HARLAN CLOETE: My research is in human resource development, and the Auditor-General said the other day, we’ve got a 54% skill shortage in local government. I find that impossible because we’ve had the Skills Development Act since 1998, as well as the Employment Equity Act. So we’ve got a problem in municipalities of managers not managing managers.

We’ve got a management problem. We must accept that and make sure that we grow our own timber in our municipalities. That is not happening, Jeremy.

There is an over-reliance on consultants. So we need to go back to what Pravin Gordhan said, back to the basics. Managers should be managing and we must ensure that your political leadership ask the right questions.

There are too many instances where officials, administrators enjoy the protection of politicians, and they get away with murder. In the end, there can be no higher calling than working for the greater good of society. That’s why they are called public servants. You work for the greater good.

So if you don’t want to be there, my call is get out, because it’s tantamount to treason if you steal from the poor or if you are at work, but not at work.

JEREMY MAGGS: Dr Harlan Cloete, thank you very much indeed. Local governance and public leadership research fellow at the Centre for Gender and Africa Studies at the University of the Free State.

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