Nkosikhulule Nyembezi
“We’re pleased.” That is the collective sigh of relief from members of the Good Governance Network made up of academic researchers and civil society activists on hearing about President Cyril Ramaphosa’s signing of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Amendment Bill into law.
The law, importantly, bars municipal managers and senior staff from holding political office, whether appointed in a permanent, temporary or acting capacity.
Ramaphosa signed the Bill on August 16, almost 22 months after the National Assembly passed the Bill in December 2020.
The law is clear and consistent and a step towards increased accountability and efficiency in local government.
“A staff member may not hold political office in a political party, whether in a permanent, temporary or acting capacity. A person who has been appointed as a staff member before (the legislation) takes effect must comply with (it) within one year of the commencement of (the legislation),” it reads.
It also empowers MECs to take appropriate steps, which include the application of declaratory orders on the validity of appointments, to enforce compliance.
It bolsters the recently introduced regulations professionalising local government administration by establishing uniform norms and standards and including minimum qualification and competency criteria.
These include requirements for senior management such as tertiary qualifications, a minimum of five years of management experience and specific critical leadership competencies, such as problem-solving.
The legislative framework also delineates roles and responsibilities for councillors and officials by prohibiting councillors from participating in the recruitment and selection processes.
As another way to complement this bold step, the framework facilitates a pathway for the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agency (MISA) to work with municipalities and deploy professionals to specific municipalities. And this is an all-around big deal.
The legislation also repeals the Municipal Systems Amendment Act of 2011, declared unconstitutional in 2017, for its failure to comply with the procedures set out in section 76 of the Constitution.
It will complement the amended Public Audit Act, which came into effect in April 2021, and gives the Auditor-General biting powers.
These include referring “material irregularities” in the government spending of public funds to law enforcement for further investigation, taking remedial action against culprits and issuing a certificate of debt against guilty officials to recover public funds.
To state the apparent: political meddling in the operations of a municipality through practices such as cadre deployment of incompetent politicians to municipalities should strike fear into the hearts of politicians, not delight them.
So what have proponents of the professionalisation of local government found to like about a historic piece of municipal systems legislation?
Guilt by association only goes so far: municipal officials can no longer hide behind the veil of following political instructions when held accountable for maladministration and corruption.
Instead, they will be personally liable for adverse audit reports pointing at their dereliction of duty. This law is undoubtedly good news and will do many good things.
Understanding what has just happened demands a longer view, and it primarily reflects just how much power the elite political party officials have amassed since the dawn of democracy in 1994.
For decades, political parties have worked to create a political climate wholly allergic to the comprehensive implementation of the Batho Pele principles.
In her audit of municipal figures for the 2020/21 financial year, Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke reported that municipalities incurred most of the R21.10 billion of government irregular expenditure, mainly due to non-compliance with supply chain legislation.
I have previously commented in these opinion pages that wasting money on a colossal scale, as witnessed in the past financial year, would lead to immediate resignations or firings in any other line of work.
In the history of government blunders, the buck has often gone whizzing through the Union Building, Parliament, provincial legislatures, and municipal councils without ever stopping at anyone’s desk.
The efficient provision of essential services to communities is ultimately a planning problem: no entity other than the local government can ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner, promote social and economic development, promote a safe and healthy environment, and encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government.
For all its many noble principles, the Constitution sought to position local government as an independent and distinct sphere of government. It empowered each municipality with the right to govern, on its initiative, the local government affairs of its community.
We should be proud that the legislation’s most promising elements are a series of bold incentives to get politicians to do the right thing to achieve the sector’s professionalisation.
Having two legs to stand on and demanding they do so feels emboldening. It is the result of these long-running and largely successful advocacy efforts by organised civil society organisations and progressive parliamentarians.
The legislation, combined with other accountability measures, makes it much more likely – though still far from reaching a tipping point – that by the following local government elections, we will witness a marked acceleration in professionalism in local government.
At the same time, it also makes sense to mourn, to rage against the suffering resulting from the vacuum this legislation has belatedly filled, and above all, to organise to ensure consistent and full-force implementation of the legislation.
The processes leading to the passage of this legislation have made one thing abundantly clear. We must wrest the wheel of our democracy from those who would drive us all off a cliff.
As the open and accountable government movement recalibrates post the passage of this legislation, a political programme is emerging from this fact to ensure that suitably qualified citizens run municipalities.
No entity of elite politicians with so little allegiance to the public should be granted such determinative control over its fate by continuing to mismanage and loot public resources in the name of cadre deployment and preservation of political party unity.
Nyembezi is a policy analyst and a human rights activist
Cape Times