14 September 2007
Programme Director;
Salga-Gauteng Chairperson Mayor Duma Nkosi;
Salga Deputy Chairpersons Mayor Maserame Khumalo and Mayor Obed Maila;
Executive Mayors Present;
Salga Provincial Executive;
Municipal Managers;
Officials
Thank you for inviting me to the Salga-Gauteng Members Assembly. I am aware my boss (Premier Mbhazima Shilowa) was here yesterday and I am tempted not to say anything.
Suffice to say, I would like to focus on issues of policy. It will be malicious for the gathering not to look at National Policy issues. I hope that you are fully aware of that the Minister of Provincial and Local Government has begun a process of reviewing the White Paper on Local Government and develop the White Paper of Provincial Government. All provinces are expected to make an input to enrich and ensure that the process runs smooth.
It is important to look at the legal paper about the role of Local Government. The Department of Provincial and Local Government develop policies and provinces have the responsibility to implement policies. The role of local government is stipulated in Schedule 5 of the Constitution.
Therefore, the questions we need to ask ourselves as Salga are what should be the role of local government? In doing so we must be frank and honest because the new system of local government started only in 2000 under the Municipal Structures Act.
With regard to provinces, we must acknowledge that some provinces have done well, some are weak and not doing well. It cannot be business as usual, therefore as we review the White Paper of Local Government we must be able to locate this service delivery protests.
For an example, housing is not a competency of local government, but all these protests have been about housing and people who are demonstrating have nothing to do with local government, but provincial government.
Programme Director;
It is important that when we deal with the issues of powers and functions we must take emotions away. Province does not have any form of revenue except from gambling, licensing and betting. The rest of the money comes from the National Government in the form of fiscals and Value Added Tax. As province, we do not have any revenue base and sometimes we do not appreciate the challenges facing municipalities. We have to be objective and reality when dealing with such issues.
If South Africa has to deliver at the extend we want we need to ask ourselves on what is it that we need to do to ensure that all the three spheres of government deliver in an integrated way.
Gauteng has progressed more than any other province but we still need to do more in informal settlements.
Salga's mandate is to assist conduct research and assist municipalities in the province to deliver and the Premier has said on many occasions that there is no harm in having a strong provincial government and having a strong local government. We need to discuss this issue that it is possible to have a strong province and local government.
The role of the province includes monitoring and evaluation and integration while municipalities play the role of service delivery.
Sometimes there are duplications on the work the province does and integrate the work we are doing as different spheres of government.
As we are all aware, in Gauteng we are trend-setters. We have just launched the Municipal Public Accounts Committees (MPACs) in order to ensure that we separate the role of the executive and the Administration. MPACs have been introduced and we are the only the province leading in this regard.
Programme Director:
It is noteworthy that Salga has now responded as a collective to the powers and functions deliberations that have been going on in the province. Although the powers and functions debate created a lot of confusion, it was a necessary confusion. In reviewing the powers and functions we should take away our emotions. We must remove emotions and allow sanity to prevail.
We need to begin to ask ourselves on what functions which belongs to National Government needs to be delegated to the province in order to speed to service delivery and which from province needs to be delegated to municipalities. Service delivery is beyond ourselves, therefore we must put our people first than our emotions.
Like on the aspect of provinces, there are municipalities which are stronger than others and those which are weaker than others. It is therefore important to look at the Metro System of Government as a solution. In reviewing the White Paper on Local Government we must be focusing on the Metro System of Local Government and Salga should also influence the process.
I would like to appeal to mayors and municipal managers not to do their own feasibility study on the Metro System of Local Government. There is only one feasibility study done by the province and all of us cannot procure services on what the Metro System of Local Government should look like. The Five Year Review on Local Government has raised the weakness in the role of district municipalities. Some districts are functioning more than others and others are week. We then need to ensure that the weak districts function at an optimum level.
On the aspect of municipal financial viability, I had a meeting with the Auditor-General on Tuesday. He assured me that municipalities can achieve unqualified audits by 2009. He informed me that Gauteng is the only province which has initiated the campaign to achieve unqualified audit reports. His concerns were that most municipalities have achieved disclaimers and qualified audits from day one. He has promised that those issues raised in the financial statements can be rectified. These include assets and document management. Most municipalities do not know how many assets they have, i.e. laptops, tractors and cars. Some municipalities have achieved qualified audit reports but they have not managed to sustain them.
We are in full support of the restructuring of the electricity industry through the establishment of the Regional Electricity Distribution (Reds). We are working with the Electricity Distribution Industry (EDI), the Department of Minerals and Energy and the Minister of Enterprise to ensure that we are prepared for the establishment of the Reds. We have done well as a province in the provision of electricity, water and sanitation. We are on course in achieving the National Targets. We have achieved a lot despite the challenges in informal settlements and we will achieve much more.
Good luck and I wish you all the best in your deliberations and hope you come out of this Members Assembly with one clear voice of Salga.
I thank you.