SALGA Special Working Group reflects on proposed changes in the Municipal Structure Act while municipalities share experiences on section 139

Posted: 22 October 2018

The day-two of the Councillor Welfare and Governance and Intergovernmental Relations Working Group kick-started with presentations from Cooperative Governance and Tradition Affairs (COGTA) Kevin Naidoo and Independent Electoral Commission Granville Abrahams, which focussed on the proposed changes relating to the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act, 1998, that  SALGA and CoGTA have been pursuing for the last three years, which is intended,  to be tabled to Parliament in the coming weeks for engagements.

The proposed amendments include:

• 14 day period to inform the MEC of a vacancy within the municipality;
• the geographical size of an area to determine the number of Councillors;  
• the clarity on the role and function of Speakers and the Chief Whips, among others.

Concerning the application of section 139 interventions by provincial government to member municipalities and other related matters, Maluti-a-Phofong Local Municipality indicated that since the invocation of section 139 of the Constitution, their municipal council is functioning, however, with migration and integration of their financial systems still problematic.  The drafted Financial Recovery Plan by National Treasury has assisted the municipality to turn around their financial resources. The municipality welcomed SALGA’s assistance to review guidelines for the implementation of TASK Job Evaluation.

Ditsobotla Local Municipality presented that it has been subjected to the invocation of section 139 of the Constitution for at least four time in the term of local government; there continuous to be lack of functionality for their council committee and their ward committees; the municipality endures a lot of challenges, more especially as it relates to their revenue capability, however, since the advent of the section 139 recently, it is assisting the municipality with the functionality of the oversight committees; ward committees and the municipal council; the municipality struggles with a number of systematic and policy problems that requires the intervention of SALGA and Provincial CoGTA to assist, and they include training of MPACs.

Fezile Dabi although it is not subjected to section 139 intervention, however, due to the brewing concerns over the lack of functionality of their council, it reported a number of issues that led to the municipality lack of functionality and amongst them includes, governance, political in-fighting, instability in the council leadership which hampered the effective delivery of their services.  It was reported that with the new mayor soon to resume their duty, the municipal council will soon stabilise and for service delivery to be provided effectively including concluding all matters that related to the appointment of Municipal Manager.

Makana Local Municipality indicated that their policies and bylaws were outdated and needed reviewing. Moreover, since the intervention the revenue enhancement contract has been reviewed; there is an establishment of an internal audit as well as MPAC capacity; thus, the municipality is in the process of reviewing all litigations and are busy enlisting province’s support.

It was recognised that municipalities are enduring a number of challenges and there is a need for SALGA to appropriately respond with support programmes that will turn around the functionality and perception of local government.  It was clearly expressed that the intended purpose of section 139 intervention is to assist a municipality to be functional, sustainable and self-sufficient, so that it can fulfil it developmental mandate as set out in the Constitution, however, the process of its application and how dire the situation of a municipality for a member municipality to be instigated with section 139 is concerning.