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Provinces, municipalities may be scrapped

Port Elizabeth - Before the end of this year government and the ANC will review the existence of district and certain local municipalities which are not financially viable, said Sicelo Shiceka, Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.

Shiceka was speaking at the annual congress of the municipal workers’ union, Imatu, in Port Elizabeth.

He said district municipalities’ income had been based on regional services council levies.

When these were done away with, revenue contracted to such an extent that some municipalities had become totally dependent on government allocations.

These municipalities’ infrastructure and responsibilities would apparently be taken over by remaining local authorities.

The review is part of the ANC and government’s overhaul of the entire governmental structure, which is seemingly to take place before year-end.

The overall governmental complex is under review. The provinces are also being looked into, as well as whether nine of them are really needed.

Shiceka reiterated that municipalities’ funding model was not working and should be thoroughly re-examined.

The model was based on the principle that 95% of a municipality’s income should come from the community, which was not happening. In some cases councils were receiving up to 40% of their funds from government.

He said government needed to give municipalities more money.

A turnaround strategy for local authorities, including a corrective plan for each individual one, would, according to Shiceka, determine policy for the next couple of years.

He said plans were well advanced to ensure the professionalism of municipal officials and see that the roles of officials and political leaders were clearly defined.

The Municipal Systems Amendment Bill is currently at Nedlac and will apparently be referred back to parliament at the end of this month.

Shiceka’s analyses clearly indicated deficiencies in municipal management and he wanted to ensure that each council had at least a properly qualified municipal manager, head of finance, engineer, town planner, head of communications and head of human resources.

Government would involve unions in determining minimum qualifications for the posts.

Municipalities were currently so busy playing host to other government departments and writing reports that they were struggling to do their work, he said.

They currently had to report on 220 different issues.

They were so busy writing reports, he said, that they could not do their jobs. There should be fewer reports.

Further, visits to municipalities by other state departments and their provincial counterparts would in future be coordinated by his department because these visits also kept municipal officials away from their work.

- Sake24

For business news in Afrikaans, go to www.sake24.com.

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