Cape Town - The ongoing service delivery protests are testament to the fact that focused attention is needed on local government.
This is according to the SA Human Rights Commission’s (SAHRC) recent report on the National Conference on Local Government Accountability, Service Delivery and Human Rights.
The report states: “As South Africa approaches 30 years since the dawn of democracy, it appears that local government is largely failing to meet expectations.
“The 2021 State of Local Government Report by the Department of Co-operative Governance states that 64 out of 257 municipalities across the country are dysfunctional, 111 are at medium risk and only 16 are stable.
“There is very weak state monitoring and supervision of the operations of local government activities.
Unfortunately, consequence management in local government is currently pitiable, leading to a culture of poor performance,” the report reads.
While provinces have the power to monitor and intervene, the report found: “There is no uniform procedure with the necessary checks and balances when interventions are made by provinces. Lack of knowledgeable personnel executing, as provinces tend to appoint one person as an administrator without accompanying experts.”
Recommendations include the need to review the budget allocation model for the local sphere of local government, fostering community participation, and the need to ensure that the national and governments play their oversight and support role.
GOOD secretary-general Brett Herron, said: “It is right that the Human Rights Commission is raising these matters because our municipalities are failing residents in so many respects and the source of this is how a municipality allocates its budget and how it accumulates its revenue.
“Competent municipal leadership, politically and administrative, is what communities rely on for the most basic of services like access to water, electricity and sanitation services.”
Cape Times