This year's elections marked a step forward for woman's representation in local government, but it stopped short of the goal of equal gender representation set out in the White Paper for local government. That said, However, the number of woman councillors elected has increased significantly from 29% in 2000 to 40% in this year's election.
In March 2006, the Supreme Court of Appeal handed down a decision that sets an important precedent in respect of the preference given to municipal debts in cases of insolvency, in terms of section 118 of the Municipal Systems Act.
Local democracy is a cornerstone of the new South African State. The Constitution says that local government will provide democratic and accountable government for local communities. Municipalities will build local democracy, which means that the municipal community has the opportunity to elect representatives into office and hold them accountable for their performance. A few examples of recent political party decisions are discussed and compared with the ideals of strong local government.
Does a candidate become a councillor on the day of the election or on the day that he or she is sworn in? This matter is important in relation to matters such as remuneration. It also arise during the council's term when a vacancy in the council is filled.
The Relationship between district and local municipalities varies from cordial and cooperative to conflictual and unproductive. What causes this conflict and ultimately poor service delivery? Can it be managed? The new intergovernmental Relations Framework tries to solve this problem by establishing district intergovernmental forums.
National government recently gazetted new and bigger remuneration packages for municipal councillors. The proposal sees a big jump in salaries for all office-bearers, especially part-time councillors. However, some dangers lurk in the changes for rural councils and voters in poorer communities.
When examining failure of local government to deliver services, a lack of funds and lack of capacity, the failure to spend allocated budgets and lagging repairs and maintenance are found to be the usual culprits for poor municipal performance and accumulating backlogs.
The National Health Act 61 of 2003 ushered in a new era in the development of South Africa's health system. Health sector reforms in South Africa are geared towards a comprehensive and integrated national health system, based on the primary health care approach and delivered thorough the a district health system. The Act envisages a municipality based district health system and thus has significant implications for local government.
The first meeting of the newly elected councils must take place at the seat of the municipality within 14 days of the council being declared elected. If it is a district council, the meeting must be held within 14 days of the appointment of all members who are to be appointed by local councils. At the first meeting, a number of issues must be decided and key office bearers must be elected.
The election on 5 December 2000 was the formal beginning of the new local government dispensation, Local government was established as the primary site for service delivery and development in the country. This article outlines some of the challenges facing the new councils.
For a democracy to be vibrant, councillors must have the freedom to speak their minds in council. This freedom is protected by the Constitution and the Municipal Structures Act, which grants councillors immunity against civil and criminal liability for anything they say in council.
Prior to the December 5 elections, the Constitution was amended and other legislation was enacted, to provide for the demarcation and establishment of cross-boundary municipalities, i.e. municipalities straddling provincial boundaries. Sixteen cross-boundary municipalities were established affecting five provinces in South Africa. The creation of such municipalities was necessary to bring interdependent people and economies on different sides of a provincial boundary together in one municipality.
At the end of 2005, the Supreme Court of Appeal made a ruling on the question of whether sewerage charges should be based on the value of the property or on the amount of water used. The matter had been brought by the Rates Action Group against a High Court judgment, which ruled that the City of Cape Town was permitted to impose property rates for services in addition to general property rates, in conjunction with a tariff based on water usage.
A probe into performance bonuses in kwaZulu-Natal
More than 100 municipal councillors and officials have been dismissed or forced to resign over the past five years in Gauteng's municipalities following investigations into fraud, corruption and absenteeism. The most common offences discovered by the office of the Auditor General and its investigative units were maladministration, fraud and corruption.
In his 2006 State of the Nation Address on 3 February , President Thabo Mbeki focused on the troubles and goals of local government. While he noted that three quarters of South Africans approve of the government's service delivery efforts, only 45% believe that local government is performing well. The President then set out his plan to rescue local government.
Councillors are elected to represent local communities on municipal councils, to ensure that municipalities are accountable to their communities. In fulfilling this mandate, councillors must abide by the Code of Conduct as set out in Schedule 5 of the Municipal Structures Act, which requires them, among other things, to disclose their financial interests and refrain from using their positions as councillors for personal gain.
The Constitution mandates local government to ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable manner and to encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government.
In his 2003 State of the Nation Address, President Thabo Mbeki announced that "government will create a public service echelon of mutli-skilled community development workers". The community development worker programme is an effort to deepen democracy at the local level and is intended to give citizens direct access to government in a people-centred way.
With the upcoming local government election drawing closer, gender representation has become an issue once again. The use of a quota policy to address the problem of under representation of woman has been the subject of heated debate. This debate has brought to the fore the role of parties policies on gender representation within the context of the current electoral system.
The Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) will spend R15 to 20 billion on labour-intensive projects by 2009. The short-term goal is to create a million temporary jobs to alleviate poverty, especially in rural areas. This article discusses the four sectors of the EPWP.
The Speaker of the Lejweleputswa District Municipality convened a council meeting on 15 July 2003 in which he purported to appoint a commission of enquiry to investigate alleged irregularities at that district municipality. The issue before the Free State High Court was whether the speaker of a district had the power to appoint a commission of enquiry.
Many people aggrieved by decisions made by municipalities have latched on to the fact that they have a right to appeal in terms of section 62 of the Municipal Systems Act. Municipalities have recently experienced a significant increase in the number of appeals lodged in terms of section 62. This has led to municipalities having to grapple with the parameters and practical implications of section 62. This article highlights a few difficulties in this regard.
Cross-boundary municipalities are set to disappear on the date of the forthcoming elections local government election. On that date, provincial borders and the current cross boundary municipalities will be incorporated in one or other province. Five provinces are affected by the disappearances of 16 cross border municipalities. In addition, there will be a shift of municipalities between KwaZulu-Natal and the Eastern Cape.
The powers and functions of local government are listed in schedules 4B and 5B of the Constitution. The schedules list functional areas without detailed definitions of each area. There is a considerable overlap between local government functional areas and those of provincial government, listed in Schedules 4A and 5A. Due to this, there is a degree of confusion about who does what. A lack of clarity about role definition may prejudice service delivery and cause conflict over resources and authority.
This case highlights the need for provincial governments to carefully re-evaluate all ordinances predating the constitutional dispensation because in all likelihood, many of their provisions are unconstitutional.
The Intergovernmental Relations Act 13 of 2005 was signed into law by the President on 10 August and took effect on 15 August 2005. The implementation of the Act brings a long process of consultation and drafting to a close. The next step is the implementation of the Act.
Property rates are an important source of revenue for municipalities and this is reflected in the preamble to the Property Rates Act of 2004.There is a need to provide local government with access to a sufficient and buoyant source of revenue necessary to fulfil its developmental objectives. At the same time, however, a municipality's financial health should not be attained at the unjustifiable expense of the poor within its area. The power to impose rates should take into account the imbalances of the past and the burden of rates on the poor.
Each municipality classified as high capacity in terms of the Municipal Finance Management Act 56 of 2003 is required to compile a service delivery and budget implementation plan. The SDBIP is a management, implementation and monitoring tool that will assist the mayor, municipal manager, councillors, senior managers and the community with realising the municipality's strategic objectives as outlined in the Integrated Development Plan.
