MUNICIPAL POWERS AND FUNCTIONS CAPACITY ASSESSMENT … · MUNICIPAL POWERS AND FUNCTIONS CAPACITY...
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MUNICIPAL POWERS AND FUNCTIONS CAPACITY ASSESSMENT 2018
NATIONAL REPORT
NOTE:
In this report, data from a wide variety of sources were used. Municipalities were requested to provide information on broad aspects of governance, capacity and the performance of functions. Stats SA data from the population census and municipal censuses (Non-Financial and Financial) were used to determine population size, number of households and service backlogs. Other data were sourced from National Treasury, LGSETA, SARS, CoGTA, SAPS, MDB, etc. for this assessment of capacity. However, given that many municipalities did not provide all the information requested of them, these additional data sources were combined with their own data. All municipalities were also provided with the information contained herein and requested to verify all information in these capacity assessments, and to provide additional information where necessary. Therefore, the MDB takes no responsibility for any inaccurate information and the interpretation thereof.
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Contents
1 Introduction and background ......................................................................................................... 1
2 Methodology employed ................................................................................................................. 4
2.1 Municipal questionnaire ......................................................................................................... 4
2.2 Additional data sources .......................................................................................................... 4
2.3 Methodological Challenges .................................................................................................... 5
2.4 Comparative analysis ............................................................................................................. 8
3 The state of local governance ..................................................................................................... 10
4 Environmental situation ............................................................................................................... 16
4.1 Demographics and Social Context ....................................................................................... 19
4.2 Age structure ........................................................................................................................ 21
4.3 Household size and density ................................................................................................. 21
4.4 Income and employment ...................................................................................................... 23
4.5 Land Cover .......................................................................................................................... 26
4.6 Education services ............................................................................................................... 26
5 Amalgamation of municipalities ................................................................................................... 29
5.1 Background to the municipal boundary redeterminations: 2011-2016 ................................. 29
5.2 Municipal mergers: Before and after 2016 municipal elections ........................................... 32
5.3 Municipality’s Demarcation Process Issues ......................................................................... 47
5.4 Concluding Comments on Amalgamations .......................................................................... 55
6 Institutional Overview .................................................................................................................. 61
6.1 Financial overview ............................................................................................................... 61
6.2 State of Governance ............................................................................................................ 65
6.3 Engagements with the public ............................................................................................... 66
6.4 Focus on the poor ................................................................................................................ 67
6.5 Compliance with key policies ............................................................................................... 68
6.6 Budgetary challenges .......................................................................................................... 70
7 Individual capacity ....................................................................................................................... 72
7.1 Political leadership ............................................................................................................... 72
7.2 Senior Management ............................................................................................................. 73
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7.3 Staffing stability .................................................................................................................... 75
7.4 Staffing competency ............................................................................................................ 76
7.5 Professional associations .................................................................................................... 77
7.6 MFMA Competency ............................................................................................................. 79
8 National overview of capacity to perform functions ..................................................................... 80
8.1 Functions for which Minister takes responsibility ................................................................. 83
8.2 Shared functions for which MECs take responsibility .......................................................... 84
8.3 Local Functions for which MEC takes responsibility ............................................................ 87
8.4 Municipal Powers and Functions: Assignments ................................................................... 91
8.5 Powers and Functions Summary ......................................................................................... 97
9 Conclusions and Recommendations ......................................................................................... 100
9.1 Performance of functions by Municipal Department .......................................................... 100
9.2 Human Capacity ................................................................................................................ 107
9.3 Infrastructure ...................................................................................................................... 124
9.4 Budget allocations .............................................................................................................. 128
9.5 Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 132
10 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................. 134
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List of figures
Figure 1: Completion of MDB capacity assessments by MIIF and Province ........................................ 5
Figure 2: Map of submissions from local municipalities ........................................................................ 6
Figure 3: Map of municipalities by MIIF type, and breakdown of municipalities per province by MIIF type
............................................................................................................................................................... 9
Figure 4: Map of Section 139 interventions ........................................................................................ 11
Figure 5: Map of adverse audits or disclaimers .................................................................................. 12
Figure 6: Percentage of total population and land area per province .................................................. 19
Figure 7: Population growth and sex ratio .......................................................................................... 20
Figure 8: Map of population growth 2001 - 2011 ................................................................................ 20
Figure 9: Provincial Racial breakdown ............................................................................................... 21
Figure 10: Age breakdown per province .............................................................................................. 21
Figure 11: Household size .................................................................................................................. 22
Figure 12: Percentage population by density ..................................................................................... 23
Figure 13: Household income ............................................................................................................. 24
Figure 14: Employment and Unemployment ...................................................................................... 25
Figure 15: Dependency and inequality ............................................................................................... 25
Figure 16: Land cover ......................................................................................................................... 26
Figure 17: Matric pass rate and percentage of youth in school .......................................................... 27
Figure 18: Percentage population by level of education ..................................................................... 28
Figure 19: Audit outcomes .................................................................................................................. 62
Figure 20: Municipalities in Financial Distress by Province ................................................................ 64
Figure 21: Years persistent financial distress ...................................................................................... 64
Figure 22: Number of ward committee meetings held per local municipality in 2017/18 .................... 66
Figure 23: Percent of municipalities per province with a free basic water policy in place ................... 67
Figure 24: Average amounts owed by municipalities to Eskom by province ...................................... 69
Figure 25: Average percentage of operating expenditure by municipalities on staffing costs ............ 70
Figure 26: Average municipal dependence on grants per province ................................................... 70
Figure 27: Gender of Municipal Mayors per municipality .................................................................... 72
Figure 28: Municipal Manager and CFO Vacancies by Province ....................................................... 73
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Figure 29: Average Years Experience for Municipal Senior Management ......................................... 74
Figure 30: Average years’ experience for Municipal Managers, Chief Financial Officers and Section 56
Positions .............................................................................................................................................. 75
Figure 31: Average number of persons retired/ boarded and dismissed per year per municipality by
MIIF type .............................................................................................................................................. 75
Figure 32: Average number of staff by qualification and MIIF type ............................................................. 77
Figure 33: Average number of staff registered with planning, engineering and financial professional
bodies by MIIF type ............................................................................................................................. 78
Figure 34: Provincial Breakdown of Ministerial authorised functions performed by Local or District municipalities ....................................................................................................................................... 84
Figure 35: Average staff numbers per function ................................................................................... 84
Figure 36: Capex and Opex 2017/18 budgets per ministers functions ............................................... 84
Figure 37: Average operating and capital budgets for each of the functions per municipality ............ 87
Figure 38: Number of municipalities undertaking Local Functions ..................................................... 89
Figure 39: Number of municipalities performing local functions by province ....................................... 89
Figure 40: Average operating and capital budgets for each of the functions ...................................... 90
Figure 41: Average staff allocated to each of the functions ................................................................. 91
Figure 42: Performance of Schedule 4A and 5A functions by municipalities ..................................... 91
Figure 43: Provincial totals for the performance of Schedule 4A and 5A functions by municipalities 92
Figure 44: Performance of all functions ............................................................................................ 104
Figure 45: Performance of planning and economic functions ........................................................... 105
Figure 46: Performance of technical functions ................................................................................. 106
Figure 47: Performance of community functions .............................................................................. 107
Figure 48: Overall split of full time staff ............................................................................................. 107
Figure 49: Adequately skilled staff .................................................................................................... 108
Figure 50: Vacancies ........................................................................................................................ 109
Figure 51: Development and planning staff ...................................................................................... 112
Figure 52: Development planning population to staff ....................................................................... 114
Figure 53: Adequately skilled staff .................................................................................................... 114
Figure 54: Development and planning skilled staff ........................................................................... 115
Figure 55: Technical services staff ................................................................................................... 116
Figure 56: Technical services population by staff member ............................................................... 118
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Figure 57: Adequately skilled staff .................................................................................................... 119
Figure 58: Technical services skilled staff ........................................................................................ 119
Figure 59: Community services staff ................................................................................................ 120
Figure 60: Community services population to staff member ............................................................ 122
Figure 61: Adequately skilled staff – community services ................................................................ 123
Figure 62: Community services skilled staff ..................................................................................... 124
Figure 63: Differences between total number of functions performed across all municipalities and the
number with infrastructure ................................................................................................................. 125
Figure 64: Total capital and operational budget splits for 2017/18 ................................................... 129
Figure 65: Capital and Operating budgets – development and town planning services ................... 130
Figure 66: Capital and Operating budgets – technical services ....................................................... 131
Figure 67: Capital and Operating budgets – community services .................................................... 131
Figure 68: Summary of performance of function – Municipal abattoirs ............................................ 135
Figure 69: Summary of performance of function – Local Tourism .................................................... 136
Figure 70: Summary of performance of function – Municipal Airports .............................................. 137
Figure 71: Summary of performance of function – Municipal Planning ............................................ 139
Figure 72: Summary of performance of function – Air Pollution ....................................................... 140
Figure 73: Summary of performance of function – Building Regulations .......................................... 141
Figure 74: Summary of performance of function – Pontoons, ferries, jetties, piers, harbours .......... 142
Figure 75: Summary of performance of function – Trading Regulations .......................................... 143
Figure 76: Summary of performance of function – Beaches and Amusement Facilities .................. 144
Figure 77: Summary of performance of function – Billboards and Public Advertisements ............... 146
Figure 78: Summary of performance of function – Control of public nuisances ............................... 146
Figure 79: Summary of performance of function – Control of public liquor trading ........................... 147
Figure 80: Summary of performance of function – Facilities for care, burial of animals, pounds ..... 148
Figure 81: Summary of performance of function – Pounds .............................................................. 149
Figure 82: Summary of performance of function – Fencing and fences ........................................... 150
Figure 83: Summary of performance of function – Licensing of dogs .............................................. 151
Figure 84: Summary of performance of function – Licensing of public food trading ......................... 152
Figure 85: Summary of performance of function – Noise pollution ................................................... 153
Figure 86: Summary of performance of function – Street trading ..................................................... 154
Figure 87: Summary of performance of function – Environment and Nature Conservation ............. 155
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Figure 88: Summary of performance of function – Vehicle licensing ................................................ 156
Figure 89: Road length by road type and surface ............................................................................. 158
Figure 90: Summary of performance of function – Municipal roads ................................................. 158
Figure 91: Access to weekly refuse .................................................................................................. 160
Figure 92: Summary of performance– Refuse removal, refuse dumps and solid waste .................. 160
Figure 93: Summary of performance of function – Municipal public works ...................................... 161
Figure 94: Summary of performance of function – Municipal Public Transport ................................ 162
Figure 95: Access to electricity ......................................................................................................... 164
Figure 96: Summary of performance of function – Electricity Reticulation ....................................... 164
Figure 97: Access to potable water .................................................................................................. 166
Figure 98: Summary of performance of function – Potable Water Supply Systems ......................... 166
Figure 99: Access to flush toilets ...................................................................................................... 168
Figure 100: Summary of performance of function – Sanitation ........................................................ 168
Figure 101: Summary of performance of function – Storm Water Management Systems ............... 169
Figure 102: Summary of performance of function – Cleansing ........................................................ 170
Figure 103: Summary of performance of function – Street lighting .................................................. 170
Figure 104: Summary of performance of function – Traffic and parking ........................................... 171
Figure 105: Dwelling type ................................................................................................................. 173
Figure 106: Summary of performance of function – Housing ........................................................... 173
Figure 107: Summary of performance of function – Cemeteries, funeral parlours, crematoria ........ 174
Figure 108: Summary of performance of function – Firefighting Services ........................................ 176
Figure 109: Summary of performance of function – Markets ............................................................ 177
Figure 110: Summary of performance of function – Municipal Health Services ............................... 179
Figure 111: Summary of performance of function – Childcare facilities ........................................... 180
Figure 112: Summary of performance of function – Local amenities ............................................... 181
Figure 113: Summary of performance of function – Local sport facilities ......................................... 181
Figure 114: Summary of performance of function – Municipal Parks and Recreation ...................... 182
Figure 115: Summary of performance of function – Public places ................................................... 183
Figure 116: Summary of performance of function – Agriculture ....................................................... 184
Figure 117: Summary of performance of function – Disaster Management ..................................... 185
Figure 118: Summary of performance of function – Libraries ........................................................... 185
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Figure 119: Summary of performance of function – Traditional Authorities ...................................... 186
Figure 120: Summary of performance of function – Welfare ............................................................ 187
Figure 121: Summary of performance of function – Ambulance services ........................................ 187
Figure 122: Summary of performance of function – Museums other than national museums ......... 188
Figure 123: Summary of performance of function – Municipal police and security guards .............. 189
List of tables
Table 1: Section 139 interventions ..................................................................................................... 10
Table 2: Dysfunctional Municipalities .................................................................................................. 12
Table 3: Changes to Category B Municipalities .................................................................................. 31
Table 4: Summary of mergers and incorporations .............................................................................. 34
Table 5: Municipal Managers .............................................................................................................. 45
Table 6: Chief Financial Officers ......................................................................................................... 46
Table 7: Meetings held ....................................................................................................................... 65
Table 8: Ward committee meetings and average protests ................................................................. 67
Table 9: Free basic services ............................................................................................................... 68
Table 10: Compliance with policies .................................................................................................... 69
Table 11: Budgets ............................................................................................................................... 70
Table 12: Political leadership .............................................................................................................. 72
Table 13: Senior management ........................................................................................................... 74
Table 14: Staffing stability ................................................................................................................... 75
Table 15: Staffing competency ........................................................................................................... 76
Table 16: Professional associations ................................................................................................... 77
Table 17: MFMA Competency ............................................................................................................ 79
Table 18: Major trading services functions ......................................................................................... 83
Table 19: Ministerial Authorised functions performed by Local or District municipalities .................... 83
Table 20: Shared functions (MEC responsibility) ................................................................................ 85
Table 21: Number of municipalities undertaking shared functions (MEC responsibility) .................... 86
Table 22: Number of municipalities undertaking shared functions per province ................................ 86
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Table 23: Functions for MEC’s responsibility ...................................................................................... 87
Table 24: Municipalities administering Schedule 4A or 5A functions ................................................. 97
Table 25: Departmental groupings ................................................................................................... 100
Table 26: Staffing across sectors and provinces .............................................................................. 108
Table 27: Adequate levels of skilled staff ......................................................................................... 109
Table 28: Vacancies ......................................................................................................................... 110
Table 29: Staff allocation by province ............................................................................................... 112
Table 30: Technical services full time staff ....................................................................................... 116
Table 31: Community services staffing ............................................................................................. 121
Table 32: Capital and operating budgets .......................................................................................... 129
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Acronyms
AG Auditor-General
Capex Capital Expenditure
CEO Chief Executive Officer
CFO Chief Financial Officer
CoGTA Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
CSP Cities Support Programme
DBSA Development Bank of Southern Africa
DCOG Department of Cooperative Governance
DHS Department of Human Settlements
DPME Department of Monitoring and Evaluation
DRDLR Department of Rural Development and Land Reform
DTI Department of Trade and Industry
DWS Department of Water and Sanitation
EC Eastern Cape
FBS Free Basic Services
FET Further Education and Training
FS Free State
GAU Gauteng
GDP Gross Domestic Product
HoD Head of Department
HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus
ICT Information and Communication Technology
IDC Industrial Development Corporation
IDP Integrated Development Plan
ILO International Labour Organisation
IUDF Integrated Urban Development Framework
KZN KwaZulu-Natal
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LGSETA Local Government Sector Education Training Authority
LIM Limpopo
MDB Municipal Demarcation Board
MEC Member of the Executive Committee
MFIP Municipal Finance Improvement Programme
MFMA Municipal Finance Management Act
MIIF Municipal Infrastructure Investment Framework
MISA Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent
MM Municipal Manager
MPAC Municipal Performance Audit Committee
mSCOA Municipal Standard Chart of Accounts
MP Mpumalanga
NC Northern Cape
NDP National Development Plan
NEMA National Environmental Management Act
NT National Treasury
NUSP National Upgrading Support Programme
NW North West
OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
Opex Operating Expenditure
PGDP Provincial Growth and Development Plan
PIT Personal Income Tax
ppsk persons per square kilometre
RDLR Rural Development and Land Reform
RSA Republic of South Africa
SALGA South African Local Government Association
SANBI South African National Biodiversity Institute
SAPS South African Police Service
SARS South Africa Revenue Service
SDBIP Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan
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SDF Spatial Development Framework
SEZ Special Economic Zone
SIP Strategic Infrastructure Project
SPLUMA Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act
Stats SA Statistics South Africa
TB Tuberculosis
TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training
WC Western Cape
WSDP Water Service Development Plan
WWTW Wastewater Treatment Works
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1 Introduction and background
Governance is affected by the management and technical experience available in an
organisation. In South Africa, there is ‘unevenness in capacity that leads to uneven
performance in local, provincial and national government. This is caused by a complex
set of factors, including tensions in the political-administrative interface, instability of
the administrative leadership, skills deficits, the erosion of accountability and authority,
poor organisational design and low staff morale’1.
The Local Government: Municipal Structures Act makes provision in Section 85 for the
Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) to assess the capacity of municipalities and
through that provide advice to MECs when requested by MECs who are considering
changes to the existing division of powers and functions across District and Local
municipalities. The Minister of COGTA is assigned responsibilities for the allocating
the major trading services functions (water, sanitation, electricity) and health services.
The capacity of municipalities to perform functions is also to be considered by the MDB
when redetermining municipal boundaries.
The MDB has prepared numerous capacity assessments over the past decade, in
fulfilling its mandate to assess municipal capacity and make recommendations where
requested. More recently, these assessments have also included external
environmental or socio-economic drivers of capacity.
This project therefore aims to collect and analyse data and information on municipal
capacity to perform all municipal powers and functions as set out in Schedules 4 Part
B and 5 Part B of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. In addition, the
project addresses the MDB’s expanded scope of the municipal capacity assessments
to include an assessment of the governance and resource/environmental situation in
each municipality.
The overall aim here is to provide a national overview of the distribution of powers and
functions at a non-metropolitan level, including here an assessment of existing
capacity to execute these functions. These data provide a benchmark to better inform
1 2030 National Development Plan
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particularly MECs on the overall shape of powers and functions across South Africa
so that if and when they request the MDB to provide advice on the possible division of
powers and functions they can do so information by the division of functions across
South Africa as a whole and within their province in particular.
In order to do this, the project has gathered as much information as possible to
examine the capacity of municipalities to perform their powers and functions, within
the environmental (economic, social, spatial, etc.) conditions in which they find
themselves. This includes information on:
1. Planning capacity, and particularly the role of district municipalities in terms of
the legal framework
2. Financial capacity: Evaluation of factors used and sources of revenue, including
challenges
3. Delivery capacity: Evaluating the division of powers and delivery of functions
relative to backlogs,
4. Administrative capacity, including ICT and human resource profiles
5. Geographical challenges.
The main intention guiding this work is for the MDB to develop a database with as
much information as possible which could be used for their own purposes as well as
to guide the three spheres of government in executing their responsibilities, from the
division of powers and functions (in the case of the Minister and MECs of COGTA) to
benchmarking across municipalities. It should also be noted that this report and the
study itself focusses primarily on category B and C municipalities as these
municipalities are where the division of powers and functions is found.
This national report therefore summarises these data and includes:
• Chapter 1: This provides the introduction.
• Chapter 2: A description of the methodology employed and challenges faced in
analysing the data which comes from municipalities and a number of national
studies by StatsSA, LGSETA, National Treasury and the like;
• Chapter 3: A summary review of the governance situation across municipalities
in South Africa;
• Chapter 4: A summary collation of the environmental assessments developed
for municipalities, reviewing the demographic and social context, the economic
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context, land and human settlements, movement and transport, infrastructure
and service provision, and the environment.
• Chapter 5: A summary analysis of the 2011-2016 amalgamation of
municipalities, drawing largely on municipal responses and analysis;
• Chapter 6: A review of the Institutional arrangements at a municipal level;
• Chapter 7: A summary of individual capabilities in municipalities;
• Chapter 8: A summary of the existing division of Powers and Functions across
the country, comparing the location of these functions with municipalities across
South Africa; and
• Chapter 9: A summary of conclusions and recommendations.
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2 Methodology employed
2.1 Municipal questionnaire
The intention of the MDB is to create a database of municipal capacity information
which also contains within it data from other sources on broader
environmental/resource contexts. In order to do this, a questionnaire was formulated
so that such information could be gathered online.
The questionnaire covered three areas:
1. General information about the municipality: This includes contact details, its leadership, budget, services, administration and governance;
2. Senior management details: This section requests information on each of the senior managers;
3. Powers and functions: Information on which powers and functions are being performed by the municipality, and the capacity to do so.
Once the questionnaire was completed, the municipal manager submitted this to the
service provider. Data was checked, and queries were addressed with municipalities
where necessary. Information pertaining to the environmental situation of each
municipality was sourced from relevant government departments or national
organisations, such as Stats SA, National Treasury, CoGTA etc.
In June 2018, municipalities were asked to participate in this project. Information was
requested on the degree to which they are both performing their legislated and/or
assigned powers and functions, and the existing capacity and competencies in each
municipality. Provinces were also requested to assist in this process.
2.2 Additional data sources
A wide variety of municipal information was also sourced from organisations such as
Stats SA, SARS, LGSETA, National Treasury and the like. Some of these data were
used to prepopulate the questionnaire allowing municipalities to both verify the
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information and/or update it. These data is also presented below in providing a
situational overview of each municipality.
2.3 Methodological Challenges
2.3.1 Methodological challenge 1: Municipal responsiveness
It was expected that these data could be collected over a
six week period, but, unfortunately, many municipalities
have failed to complete these data in spite of extensive
communications with municipalities: over 7000 calls
received and calls made to municipalities across South
Africa encouraging them and assisting where necessary,
with almost 2000 emails being sent to municipalities. In
addition, all Municipal Managers, Mayors and their offices
were contacted to improve response rates. MINMEC had
also resolved that COGTA departments should ensure
responses were completed by mid-October 2018. In
terms of this, on a weekly basis HoDs of COGTA in each
province have been contacted providing them with
updates and in some cases this has assisted in improving
response rates. Whilst some municipalities provided all
the information required, around 20% did not.
The adjacent figure provides an indication of the status of
completion by municipalities by their MIIF type and
Province.
The figure provides a breakdown across provinces and MIIF categories of the
percentage of municipalities which, some four months after being requested to do so,
had provided such information, had provided only limited information or had simply not
even started the process of providing such data. Appendix 1 provides the list of each
of these municipalities in the province and the status of responses.
The map below illustrates the state of submissions for local municipalities.
A B1 B2 B3 B4 C1 C2
0
20
40
60
80
100
Numberofmunicipalities
CompletionstatusbyMIIFtype
EasternCape
FreeState
Gauteng
KwaZulu-Natal
Lim
popo
Mpumalanga
NorthW
est
NorthernCape
WesternCape
0
10
20
30
40
50
Numberofmunicipalities
18%
35%
45%
33%
43%
41%
35%
32%
32%
27%
49% 48%
89%
45% 64%
23%
73%
CompletionstatusbyProvince
NotStart..
Started
Finished
Figure 1: Completion of MDB
capacity assessments by MIIF and
Province
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Figure 2: Map of submissions from local municipalities
In many cases, too, information provided was quite poor and significant efforts have
been made to try and verify these data using other secondary sources, such as from
StatsSA’s Non-Financial and Financial Censuses, National Treasury information, the
Community Surveys, LGSETA’s database and the like. In addition, all municipalities
have continually been asked to confirm/amend the information collated for their
municipality.
Using the data collected from municipalities, and including information from a variety
of secondary sources, draft reports were prepared and sent to each municipality,
requesting that they edit these data. Many municipalities have responded positively
and this will become an ongoing process as the MDB takes over the database and
continues to update it.
It should be noted that as these capacity assessments are ongoing, and in order to
improve responsiveness, a mechanism should be found to possibly link the provision
of information to the performance scorecards of Municipal Managers.
Statusofsubmissions
Finished
Started
NotStarted
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2.3.2 Methodological Challenge 2: Understanding Powers and Functions.
A second challenge arises from the Constitutional Schedule of allocated powers and
functions. Almost all municipalities have clearly shown that they do not organise their
service delivery in terms of an institutional framework which responds to all elements
contained in these schedules. Whilst it is easy for them to indicate if they have the
authority and/or perform major trading services like water, electricity, sanitation and
transport, they find it far more difficult to respond in cases like whether or not they
perform services like “Beaches and Amusement facilities”. Whilst not all municipalities
have beaches, even something like amusement facilities may cause confusion and as
will be shown in the section describing each individual power and function, in cases
like these the municipalities actual response rates is far lower, with many simply not
responding.
It is recommended that DCOG develop a framework which reviews the Powers and
Functions schedules and/or provides guidance for municipalities on how these should
be dealt with. This matter has recently become all the more important given that with
ongoing technological changes, it has become increasingly difficult to have a clear
understanding of where municipal powers and functions begin and end. This matter
has also become complicated as municipalities generate electricity from solid waste,
or they transmit energy, etc., all of which are not issues which could have been through
when the original division of powers and functions was contemplated.
2.3.3 Methodological challenge 3: Reconciling databases
A third challenge arises from the fact that there are existing records from key national
institutions which may well contradict the information provided by municipalities. For
example, StatSA now produce annually two censuses – the Financial Census and
Non-Financial census – and these contain information on particularly powers and
functions of the major trading services. National Treasury too is driving the mSCOA
process which ultimately will allow for comparisons across municipalities to be made.
This can be done even using existing budgets which shows income from trading
services and expenditure on major powers and functions.
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Overall, it should be noted that in spite of an extension of time and considerable
request being made of municipalities, not all municipalities have responded on all
questions which amounted to over 2000 bits of information which needed to be
responded to. This non-responsiveness is in part due to the fact that municipalities
are often unable to disaggregate for each function exactly how many staff execute that
function and/or how much money is spent on Operational and Capital requirements to
execute each function. Caution must therefore be taken in interpreting the information
contained in the tables which follow, particularly in the subsections dealing with
information on powers and functions in particular.
It must be noted that the intention of the MDB in this process is to create a database
which will continually be updated as municipalities further refine their responses. This
report therefore focusses on the results from responding municipalities as at
December 2018, and on an ongoing basis these data will be updated. In tables which
follow, blank cells simply indicate that no information had at the end of December 2018
been provided on that matter.
2.4 Comparative analysis
Municipalities in South Africa are categorised as being either Category A (Metropolitan
Areas) or Category B (Local) within Category C (District) municipalities. Further
classifications have been provided such as the Municipal Infrastructure Investment
Framework (MIIF) classification. This divides Category B municipalities into four
groups largely representative of the larger ones that exercise more powers to smaller
ones, with fewer resources and exercising relatively few powers (B1 through B4).
Category C municipalities are divided into two groups based on those which are water
authorities and those which are not. Specifically, the MIIF classification for local and
district municipalities is as follows2:
• B1: Secondary cities: the 19 (9%) local municipalities with the largest budgets.
• B2: 26 (12%) municipalities with a large town as core.
• B3: 101 (49%) municipalities with relatively small populations and a significant
proportion of urban population but with no large town as core.
2 DBSA, MIIF 7
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• B4: 59 (29%) Municipalities which are mainly rural with, at most, one or two
small towns in their area.
• C1: 23 (52%) of the district municipalities that are not water services providers
and generally have few service delivery functions.
• C2: 21 (38%) of the district municipalities that are water services providers and
often have substantial obligations.
For purposes of benchmarking of the municipalities in the following sections, the MIIF
classification provides a useful means of measuring the municipality’s characteristics
against other Category B/C municipalities.
Figure 3: Map of municipalities by MIIF type, and breakdown of municipalities per province by MIIF type
MunicipalitiesandProvincesbyMIIFtype
EasternCape
FreeState
Gauteng
KwaZulu-Natal
Limpopo
Mpumalanga
NorthWest
NorthernCape
WesternCape
0
10
20
30
40
50
Numberofmunicipalities
10
13
21
15
15
24
12
14
14
6
7
3
3
6
6
9
3
4
4
3
2
5 4
4 2 3
5 55
3
4 2
MIIFGroup
A
B1
B2
B3
B4
C1
C2
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3 The state of local governance
In terms of the Municipal Structures Act, “capacity” is defined as having reasonable
administrative, financial and human resources, and infrastructure to perform each of
the constitutional functions assigned to a municipality. In this context it also includes
leadership, governance and oversight capacity by councillors and senior management
of municipalities, and all municipal staff in general.
Over the past eighteen years, though, since the advent of democratic local
government, many municipalities have simply not been able to perform their functions
adequately. In the worst case scenario, Section 139 of the Constitution has had to be
invoked to bring in capacity to stabilise governance. In only the last seven years
nationally, for example, the following municipalities have had Section 139 invoked,
with some having had more than one intervention:
Table 1: Section 139 interventions
Province CODE Municipality
Eastern Cape EC104 Makana
Eastern Cape EC122 Mnquma
Eastern Cape EC123 Greater Kei
Eastern Cape EC133 Inkwanca
Eastern Cape EC139 Enoch Mgijima
Eastern Cape EC145 Walter Sisulu
Free State FS181 Masilonyana
Free State FS194 Maluti-a-Phofung
Free State FS205 Mafube
Free State FS284 Metsimaholo
Gauteng GT421 Emfuleni
KwaZulu-Natal
DC21 Ugu
KwaZulu-Natal
DC23 uThukela
KwaZulu-Natal
DC24 Umzinyathi
KwaZulu-Natal
DC27 Umkhanyakude
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN223 Mpofana
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN237 Imbabazane
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN238 Indaka
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN242 Nquthu
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN245 Umvoti
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN253 Emadlangeni
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN261 Edumbe
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN263 Abaqulusi
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN272 Jozini
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN275 Mtubatuba
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN436 Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma
KwaZulu-Natal
KZN437 Inkosi Langalibalele
Limpopo LIM361 Thabazimbi
Limpopo LIM367 Mogalakwena
Limpopo LIM368 Modimolle-Mookgopong
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Mpumalanga MP312 Emalahleni
Mpumalanga MP325 Bushbuckridge
North West DC38 Ngaka Modiri Molema
North West NW372 Madibeng
North West NW374 Kgetleng-Rivier
North West NW382 Tswaing
North West NW383 Mahikeng
North West NW384 Ditsobotla
North West NW385 Ramotshere
North West NW392 Naledi
North West NW393 Mamusa
North West NW397 Kagisano Molopo
North West NW403 Matlosana
North West NW404 Maquassi Hills
North West NW405 JB Marks
Western Cape
WC041 Kannaland
Western Cape
WC045 Oudtshoorn
Figure 4: Map of Section 139 interventions
Of course, and often in addition to this, the measure used most commonly to measure
poor governance are the annually produced audit (financial and performance) results.
In the most recently available 2016/17 audit, the following are municipalities which
have either not been able to have their audits finalised, or which have also ended up
with adverse findings or disclaimers:
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Figure 5: Map of adverse audits or disclaimers
The Minister of COGTA recently undertook a comprehensive analysis of the state of
local governance and identified 87 municipalities which are distressed or
dysfunctional, which require urgent intervention. These municipalities were
categorised in different ways as indicated in the following figures:
Table 2: Dysfunctional Municipalities by focus area
The intention of beginning the description of municipal capacity with a listing of
particularly challenged municipalities is in part to provide perspective on how much
still needs to be done to create the conditions under which normal, constitutionally-
defined local government should operate. Improving municipal capacity is not the
panacea to solving all the challenges facing local government. Poverty,
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unemployment, corruption, poor leadership, lack of resources, the continuing effects
of racism and so many more factors also continue to bedevil the environment under
which developmental local government should operate.
At the same time, there are significant areas of challenge which municipalities must
address on an ongoing basis, including:
• Good financial management (and performance);
• Improving the capacity to plan, deliver, operate and maintain infrastructure;
• Improving the quality of infrastructure and nursing aged infrastructure;
• Addressing infrastructure carrying capacity;
• Providing effective infrastructure operations and maintenance.
Government spends over R2.5 billion per year on various forms of capacity building
and support for local government. This includes funds allocated through conditional
grants and other programmes. The non-grant programmes being implemented to
improve the capacity of municipalities to deliver services include:
• The work of the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent in deploying skilled
technical personnel to municipalities, as well as providing training and systems
for planning infrastructure delivery and maintenance.
• The Municipal Finance Improvement Programme which deploys financial
management expertise to municipalities and the provincial treasuries
responsible for monitoring municipal budgets.
• The National Upgrading Support Programme under the Department of Human
Settlements, which assists municipalities to develop plans for informal
settlement upgrading.
• The Cities Support Programme managed by National Treasury which supports
metros to improve their planning and performance so that they are able to
deliver services in ways that optimise economic growth and reverse apartheid
spatial development patterns.
• The Integrated Urban Development Framework, which is led by the Department
of Cooperative Governance, provides a framework for managing urbanisation
and this is complemented by specific capacity support provided to intermediate
cities.
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• Each sector department also provides support and advice to municipalities on
their specific sector. For example the Department of Water and Sanitation is
responsible for reviewing the Water Service Development Plan of every
municipality that is a water services authority.
The Inter-Ministerial Task Team on Service Delivery, which is chaired by the Minister
of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, was established to coordinate the
work of government in improving the capacity of municipalities to deliver services. It
consists of Ministers from the following Departments: COGTA; National Treasury;
Human Settlements; Energy; Water and Sanitation; Roads and Transport;
Environmental Affairs; Health; Basic Education; RDLR; DPME and Sports and
Recreation, as well as SALGA and DBSA. Their key focus is to monitor service
delivery across South Africa, and particularly in the 57 priority municipalities where
there is greatest developmental need and economic impact.
Across all municipalities, there are well over 20000 CAPEX projects totalling over R70
billion each financial year which are presently being implemented in these
municipalities.
These programmes of monitoring and support are primarily coordinated provincially
with provincial Departments of DCOG playing a major role in this regard. In the
sections which follow, the focus will be on describing the existing capacity in
municipalities to perform the powers and functions presently being exercised by local
government. An integrated approach will be taken to draw out the key dimensions of
capacity as noted by the MDB:
• Individual capacity: The technical, managerial, leadership and generic skills, knowledge, attitude and behaviour accumulated through forms of education,
training, experience, networks and values.
• Institutional capacity: The potential and competency found within the municipality, which includes human resource (combined individual capacities),
financial resources and governance, physical resources (infrastructure),
strategic leadership and planning, organisational purpose, orientation,
institutional memory, confidence, partnerships, powers and functions, policies
and regulations (by – laws), support systems, structures, operational processes
and systems (planning, designing, procurement, management, financing,
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construction, documenting, reporting, implementation, performance
management systems, IT systems etc).
• Environmental/resource capacity: Environmental capacity refers to the environment and conditions necessary for establishing capacity at individual
and institutional level. It is these factors that often impacts on the performance
of municipalities. It includes factors such as technological, social, economic
(economic drivers), geographic, natural endowments (resources) and cultural
aspects etc.
In the sections which follow an overview of some of the key environmental/resource
issues is described.
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4 Environmental situation
This section of the report focuses on the broader demographic/social, economic,
environmental, infrastructural and governance base of the country as a whole.
The information collected is drawn from the following sources:
• Stats SA:
o Census 2001 and 2011
o Non-Financial Census, 2016 and 2017
o Community and Household Surveys
o Financial Census, 2016 and 2017
o Other data such as National and Provincial GDPs etc., as indicated
below
• SARS:
o Personal tax data at a municipal level
• COGTA:
o Senior management
o Amalgamations
o IUDF
• National Treasury:
o S41 reports
o Mid-year and budget assessments where reports have been completed
o Financial Distress information
o State of Local government reports
o Infrastructure data
• Department of Environment:
o SANBI database on municipal environmental information
o Hazard and other Physical environmental databases
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• Department of Water and Sanitation
o Blue Drop and Green Drop status where available
• Department of Agriculture and Forestry Affairs
o Land use evaluations
• Human Settlements
o Housing projects
o Building plans passed
• Justice and correctional services, Safety and Security
o SAPS crime statistics
o Police stations
• Transport
o Roads and other infrastructure
• Department of Basic Education and Dept of Higher Education:
o Matric results
o Examination centres
o Schools
o Learners and educators
o Universities and TVET colleges
o Distance to higher learning
o Graduates
• Local Government Sector Education Training Authority
o Skills profiles for municipalities
• Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and Department of
Traditional Affairs:
o Land claims
o Traditional communities
• DTI and IDC:
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o SIPs
o SEZs
• Department of Minerals:
o Mining licences
o Operational mines
• Other sectoral surveys
In the subsections which follow, indicators developed from some of the data provided
in some of these reports is used to describe the broader national context.
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4.1 Demographics and Social Context
The figure below shows how the national population is spread between the different
provinces and the breakdown of land area by each province.
Figure 6: Percentage of total population and land area per province
The diagram below indicates the average population growth rate of the different
provinces.3
The figure shows the average population growth rates and sex ratios across
municipalities. The sex ratio provides an indication of the gender breakdown in an
area, and it is suggestive of the composition of the labour force. Sex ratios will be
affected by sex-selective out-migration such as men migrating. Migrant labour-
receiving areas usually have higher sex ratio figures (i.e. more males to females) as
the migrants are usually male. South Africa’s average sex ratio is around 0,95, that is
95 men to 100 women. Lower sex ratios are found in areas with a higher number of
female-headed households, where household sizes are generally larger, with higher
dependency levels4.
3 Stats SA: Census 4 Demographics and Social; Stats SA: Census
0M 2M 4M 6M 8M 10M 12M 14M 16M
Population
0K 100K 200K 300K 400K
AreaKm
EasternCape
FreeState
Gauteng
KwaZulu-Natal
Limpopo
Mpumalanga
NorthWest
NorthernCape
WesternCape
12.57%
11.28%
24.08%
19.88%
10.42%
7.79%
6.74%
2.15%
5.09%
13.84%
10.63%
10.60%
30.54%
10.30%
6.27%
8.59%
7.73%
1.49%
Percentageoftotalpopulationandlandareaperprovince
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Figure 7: Population growth and sex ratio
The population growth is illustrated spatially in the map below.
Figure 8: Map of population growth 2001 - 2011
The following figure further breaks down the population by race for each province. It
indicates the proportion of people of African origin, as well as other black South
Africans (people designated previously as Coloured and Indian) as well as people
previously designated as white. Given the history of apartheid, places with generally
higher proportions of minorities (such as whites) have been massively advantaged in
economic and other terms.
PopulationGrowth2001-2011
-37.6% 81.7%
Populationgrowth
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Figure 9: Provincial Racial breakdown
4.2 Age structure
The distribution of the population by age is provided in the figure below.
Figure 10: Age breakdown per province
4.3 Household size and density
The relative size of households and the density of population are useful indicators of
human settlements and the extent to which municipalities need to respond to
challenges. This is particularly the case for relatively small households (1-2 persons)
and large (over 5 persons) households. Both provide challenges for municipal
planning and service delivery: small households hold out the possibility, if linked to
chain migration, that larger households will come into the municipalities once a
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person’s employment becomes more stable, and larger households often place an
additional strain on the delivery of basic network services. In other words, these data
indicate the degree to which there could be migrancy operating, particularly in the
larger urban areas where one could find a higher proportion of 1-2 persons households
than in other areas. And likewise, larger households could also indicate a degree of
mutual aid existing not just for familial reasons, but to cope with the effects of apartheid
and unemployment.
The figure below provides information on the proportion of households consisting of
one or two persons; 3- 5 persons and households with more than five persons.
Figure 11: Household size
The figure below highlights population density for each province. Population density
is a measurement of the number of people living within a physical area. Examining
changes to populations living in different densities gives a sense of the change in the
municipality in terms of settlement patterns. The OECD has argued that a broad norm
on what is rural would be persons living in areas with density below 150 persons per
square kilometre (ppsk). For purposes of this analysis, three different density groups
have been defined:
• Those less than 500 ppsk (low density and rural);
• 500-1000 ppsk (medium density); and
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• Over 1000 (very high) density.
Figure 12: Percentage population by density
4.4 Income and employment
Income levels per province are detailed in the figure below. Whilst this is normally
achieved by breaking the population up into quintiles of 20% of the population, given
the unequal distribution income in South Africa the use of quintiles will not show the
real gap between high and low earners. As a result, a wider range of income
distributions is used. The figure examines income distribution across the municipality,
through a number of categories of individual income being provided, such as those
households with5:
• No income;
• R1 - R19 600 income per annum;
• R19601-R614000 income per annum;
• > R614000 income per annum.
5 Stats SA
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Figure 13: Household income
The form of employment is also an important indicator. Informal employment identifies
persons who are in precarious employment situations irrespective of whether or not
the entity for which they work is in the formal or informal sector. Persons in informal
employment therefore comprise all persons in the informal sector, employees in the
formal sector, and persons working in private households who do not get basic
benefits such as pension or medical aid contributions from their employer, and who do
not have a written contract of employment6.
The youth unemployment rate refers to unemployed youth, i.e. individuals aged 15 –
24 who are without work, actively seeking work in a recent past period (past four
weeks), and currently available for work. Discouraged workers or hidden unemployed
are not counted as unemployed or as part of the labour force. Not actively seeking
work refers to people who have not taken active steps to seek work (i.e. job searches,
interviews, informational meetings etc.) during a specified recent period (usually the
past four weeks).
Lastly, here, the unemployment rate is provided showing the number of unemployed
persons as a proportion of the number of persons currently active in the labour force.
Unemployment refers to individuals without work, who are actively seeking work in a
recent past period (past four weeks), and currently available for work. Persons who
did not look for work but have a future labour market stake (arrangements for a future
job start) are counted as unemployed7.
6 Stats SA 7 International Labour Organization
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The following figure provides information on the average rates of the following across
municipalities, at a provincial and national level: formal to informal employment, the
unemployment rate, as well as the youth unemployment rate.
Figure 14: Employment and Unemployment
Income inequality can be measured in different ways. Two indicators have been
included in this analysis: the average rates of the following across municipalities, at a
provincial and national level: municipality’s dependency ratio and the Gini coefficient.
The dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those not in the work
force (the dependent part) and those who are working (the productive part). It is used
to measure the pressure on the productive population. The Gini coefficient, on the
other hand, measures the degree of inequality in a set of data and is frequently used
as a method of measuring inequalities in income distribution in a population. The Gini
coefficient ranges from 0 (everyone has the same income) to 1 (one person has all the
income).
Figure 15: Dependency and inequality
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4.5 Land Cover
The following figure provides a summary of the degree to which the land area of the
province is/has:
• Plantations
• Water bodies
• Mines
• Degraded
• Cultivated
• Built up
• Natural
Figure 16: Land cover
4.6 Education services
This section looks at education levels in the province. This includes a measure of the
level of education, the matric pass rate, and the percentage of the population in the
school-aged cohort, that are enrolled in some form of education.
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4.6.1 Matric results and learners in school
The figure below details the average results across municipalities (by province) of the
final examination for Grade 12 learners in a school, which is to some degree indicative
of the quality of education within different institutions8. It also indicates the average
municipal percentage of the population in the school aged cohort (between and
including ages 5 – 18) who are currently enrolled in education (by province).
Figure 17: Matric pass rate and percentage of youth in school
4.6.1.1 Level of education (from no schooling to graduates)
The figure below provides a measure of the level of education described as a
percentage, for each education level including:
• No schooling
• Some schooling
• Complete primary
• Some secondary
• Matric
• Higher education
8 Department of Basic Education
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Figure 18: Percentage population by level of education
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5 Amalgamation of municipalities
5.1 Background to the municipal boundary redeterminations: 2011-2016
The Municipal Demarcation Act of 1998 requires a clear process to be undertaken in
demarcating and re-demarcating boundaries. Most importantly, municipal
demarcations must improve the economic, social, administrative and financial
sustainability of municipalities, bringing together people in geographical units so that
they can largely live, work, shop and play in the same municipal area.
In each case in which municipal boundaries are changed, whether it is a small
technical change to align cadastre with boundaries, to large-scale mergers, the
MDB must consider various legislated criteria (contained in Sections 24-25 of the
Act) to ensure their re-demarcation meets the objectives for local government as
laid down in the Constitution.
Major events in the demarcation of municipalities, in order to create a more
coherent, rational, non-racial and integrated system of municipal government with
municipalities encompassing single tax bases was created, with people living, working
and shopping in roughly the same municipality, can be summarised as follows:
• 1999: the MDB created six single-tier Category A Municipalities and divided the
rest of the country into Category C (District) and B (Local) municipalities.
o The number of municipalities was reduced from 843 to 284.
o The new system had six Category A (metropolitan) municipalities, 47
district municipalities and 231 local municipalities.
• 2008: the MDB commissioned a further investigation into metropolitan
municipalities with a view to categorising more Category A municipalities.
o Two additional Category A municipalities were designated for the 2011
elections: Buffalo City and Mangaung.
• 2011: A second set of more comprehensive redeterminations were completed
in time for the municipal elections.
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o These included two larger mergers, including the amalgamation of
Metsweding District Council and Tshwane Metropolitan municipality
(and a few additional farms), as well as the merger of Kagisano Local
Municipality (NW391) with Molopo Local Municipality (NW395).
• 2016: In the most recent period of boundary redetermination, from 2011
culminating in the 2016 local government elections, the overall number of
municipalities was reduced from 278 to 257 municipalities, but with significant
changes made to many boundaries. In broad terms, the boundary changes in
this period can be classified as:
o No changes: where there were no changes to municipal boundaries;
o Slight changes: where the boundary change was not considered significant; and
o New or merged: where either a new municipality was created or two or more municipalities or major parts of a municipality were merged.
Today, the 257 municipalities consist of eight Category A, 205 Category B and 44
Category C municipalities. Some 22 of these new municipalities which came into
effect after the August 2016 elections, were newly merged municipalities, and another
74 municipalities had slight changes to the boundaries of the municipalities. Some 49
municipalities were involved in these 22 major mergers/incorporations.
The significant reduction in the number of municipalities between 2011 and 2016
resulted from two processes:
• Just under half of these mergers resulted from processes prior to 2013
where often MECs requested the MDB to consider creating more viable
municipalities and then
• In 2015 the remainder arose from the Minister of COGTA conducting an
assessment across the whole country on the functionality and viability of
municipalities. He invoked Section 22(2) of the Demarcation Act for a
redetermination of certain municipalities in the country.
In terms of the 2011 municipal boundaries, only 112 out of the 226 Category B
municipalities (the 2011 municipal boundaries) did not have their boundaries changed.
This meant that of the 114 municipalities that did change, some 72 had relatively small
changes made and the remaining 42 municipalities were reduced to only 21
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municipalities (22 fewer municipalities and one new entity), through mergers or the
disestablishment of an existing municipality and its area partitioned off to other existing
municipalities.
The following table indicates the degree of change of category B municipal
boundaries.
Table 3: Changes to Category B Municipalities
Category by
Province
New Merged % Slight % None % Grand Total
EC 4 12,9 11 35,5 16 51,6 31
FS
0,0 5 27,8 13 72,2 18
GT 1 16,7
0,0 5 83,3 6
KZN 6 14,0 20 46,5 17 39,5 43
LIM 7 31,8 7 31,8 8 36,4 22
MP 1 5,9 3 17,6 13 76,5 17
NC 1 3,8 6 23,1 19 73,1 26
NW 1 5,6 13 72,2 4 22,2 18
WC
0,0 7 29,2 17 70,8 24
Grand Total 21 10,2 72 35,1 112 54,6 205
Overall, then, the redeterminations between 2011 and 2016 have led to:
• Disestablished municipalities: These are municipalities which have either
merged with others or been divided up and amalgamated with others;
• Unchanged municipalities: These are municipalities where there were no
changes made to their boundaries between 2011 and 2016;
• Slightly changed municipalities: These are municipalities which essentially
stayed as they were except for an area being gained or lost;
• New or merged municipalities: These are municipalities where there were
significant changes made either through two municipalities merging, or a
significant portion of one disestablished municipality being added to its area or
in the case of Collins Chabane municipality (LIM345), a completely new
municipality was created.
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5.2 Municipal mergers: Before and after 2016 municipal elections
This section details some general points, drawn from an analysis of the 20
mergers/incorporations which occurred in the 2011-2016 period. Most importantly, the
analysis uses indicative data and aims to examine the degree to which the
municipalities/areas being merged are similar or different in terms of a number of
factors:
• Population size and land area changes;
• Settlement patterns, including degree of urbanisation and density;
• Governance arrangements, such as the change in number of voters per
councillor;
• Economic base, such as size, growth sectoral split and the like;
• Infrastructural needs;
• Financial viability;
• Annual audits;
• Capex; and
• Senior management, such as the degree of permanence of the Municipal
Manager and Chief Financial Officer.
These areas allow for a more complete understanding of what the implications of
mergers have been and what this means for the sort of challenges facing the newly
merged municipalities9. These data allowed for a quantitative understanding of what
the characteristics were of each of the municipalities which were being merged,
disestablished and/or incorporated.
9 Information draws largely on SALGA’s Demarcation Study, together with data from COGTA, Stats SA 2001 and 2011 Census, National Treasury’s State of Local Government Reports, Municipal budgets, StatsSA’s non-financial and financial censuses, AGSA reports, LGSETA’s sectoral skills reports and SARS personal income tax records.
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5.2.1 Merging Populations And Area
At the outset it should be indicated that in all of the redemarcations the MDB considers
a complex set of factors and so there is not one or a few reasons for each
amalgamation. In many of the cases, it is clear that there were serious problems in at
least one of the affected municipalities in terms of overall governance, service delivery
and/or lack of an economic base. Very rarely were issues such as political
representation suggested as reasons for mergers even though in almost all mergers,
where a large municipality merged with a small one, the latter ended up having fewer
councillors than before.
Clearly, merging municipalities or incorporating major parts of one municipality into
another leads to potentially quite significant changes to the population and area to be
administered by the new municipality. Across the 20 municipalities being considered,
the changes ranged quite significantly. Many of the mergers are of municipalities
which are quite small in population terms but large in area terms. For example, Mier
has only just over 7000 people, but a land mass area of over 22000 square kilometres,
doubling the size in area of //Khara Heis, but only marginally increasing the population
of the newly merged Dawid Kruiper municipality.
In many cases, smaller rural areas are merged with larger (in population terms)
municipalities. Here, eThekwini and Umdoni have shared portions of the former
Vulamehlo municipality, Ray Nkonyeni merged with Ezinqoleni and uMhlathuze
combined with parts of Ntambanana.
Thirdly, a number of the municipalities are also losing population, possibly due to
migration and/or increasing urbanisation. This has meant that many smaller
municipalities, and particularly those without a rates base, have become even more
financially unviable. For example, both Nkonkobe and Nxuba have lost population
between 2001 and 2011 and they have been merged to form Raymond Mhlaba.
Finally, in some cases, more urbanised municipalities have been merged. The largest
such example includes the former Randfontein and Westonaria becoming Rand West
City and one also has the situation where Mookgopong and Modimolle have combined
in Limpopo. The following table indicates the population and area of the merged
municipality together with the area, population and population growth rate of the
previous municipalities. As may be seen around one-third of the former municipalities
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had negative population growth rates, one-third had moderate growth rates and one-
third had medium- to high growth rates.
Table 4: Summary of mergers and incorporations
CURRENT PREVIOUS
B Enoch Mgijima EC139 250676 13584 Tsolwana EC132 6087 33281 2,29
Inkwanca EC133 3584 21971 8,53
Lukhanji EC134 3813 190723 4,91
B Walter Sisulu EC145 77463 13268 Maletswai EC143 4358 43800 17,40
Gariep EC144 8911 33677 7,55
A Mangaung MAN 775092 9886 Naledi (Fs) FS164 3424 24314 -11,52
Mangaung MAN 6284 747431 15,80
B Rand West City GT485 261022 1114 Randfontein GT482 475 149286 15,87
Westonaria GT483 640 111767 1,79
A eThekwini ETH 3476627 2555 eThekwini ETH 2292 3442361 11,40
B Umdoni KZN212 130403 993 Vulamehlo KZN211 960 77403 -6,70
Umdoni KZN212 252 78875 26,45
B Ray Nkonyeni KZN216 308657 1487 Ezinqoleni KZN215 648 52540 -4,08
Hibiscus Coast KZN216 839 256135 17,59
B Raymond Mhlaba
EC129 151341 6357 Nkonkobe EC127 3626 127115 -2,12
Nxuba EC128 2732 24264 -2,26
B Inkosi Langalibalele
KZN237 196195 3398 Umtshezi KZN234 1972 83153 38,39
Imbabazane KZN236 1426 113073 -6,26
B Alfred Duma KZN238 339736 3764 Emnambithi/ Ladysmith
KZN232 2965 237437 5,31
Indaka KZN233 992 103116 -9,26
B The New Big 5 Hlabisa
KZN276 107138 3466 The Big 5 False Bay KZN273 2121 35258 11,99
Hlabisa KZN274 1555 71925 3,83
B Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma
KZN436 110154 3601 Ingwe KZN431 1976 100548 -6,52
Kwa Sani KZN432 1852 12898 8,86
B Blouberg LIM351 175061 9539 Blouberg LIM351 9248 162629 -5,29
Aganang LIM352 1881 131164 -10,70
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CURRENT PREVIOUS
B Molemole LIM353 126489 3627 Molemole LIM353 3347 108321 -1,02
B Polokwane LIM354 728468 5053 Polokwane LIM354 3766 628999 23,75
B Dawid Kruiper NC087 100495 44229 Mier NC081 22468 7003 -2,83
//Khara Hais NC083 21780 93494 19,99
B JB Marks NW405 219462 6397 Ventersdorp NW401 3764 56702 31,63
Tlokwe NW402 2674 162762 26,81
B Modimolle- Mookgopong
LIM368 104142 10366 Mookgopong LIM364 5689 35640 3,18
Modimolle LIM365 4678 68513 -0,74
B Fetakgomo-Greater Tubatse
LIM476 428891 5693 Fetakgomo LIM474 1105 93795 1,29
Greater Tubatse LIM475 4602 335676 24,51
B City of Mbombela
MP326 658559 7141 Mbombela MP322 5394 588794 23,46
Umjindi MP323 1745 69577 29,46
B Musina LIM341 104662 10346 Musina LIM341 7577 68359 73,90
B Thulamela LIM343 459849 2641 Mutale LIM342 3886 91870 10,83
B Makhado LIM344 401515 7604 Thulamela LIM343 5835 618462 6,36
B Collins Chabane
LIM345 328447 5002 Makhado LIM344 8300 516031 4,40
B Dr Beyers Naude
EC101 79277 28652 Camdeboo EC101 12422 50993 11,40
Ikwezi EC103 4563 10537 1,64
Baviaans EC107 11668 17761 5,11
B uMhlathuze KZN282 362776 1233 uMhlathuze KZN282 793 334459 15,65
Ntambanana KZN283 1083 74336 -12,31
What does appear to be quite common in all of these cases, is that mergers have
occurred between, on the one hand, quite small and sparsely populated municipalities,
but which on the other hand are contiguous to a larger, usually better resourced
municipality. This situation gets exacerbated with increasing urbanisation and de-
population of some rural areas. It should be noted, though, that there are no doubt
other contextual issues which have influenced such redemarcations, and in sub-
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sections below one finds poor governance and service delivery being found in at least
one of each of the merged municipalities. This undoubtedly influences the MDB in its
decision-making process.
5.2.2 Merging Settlement Realities
A second set of observations can be drawn through analysing the broad settlement
patterns contained in each of the municipalities involved in mergers, including:
o The degree of urbanisation: measured either in percentage terms (as built-
up area) or the area of high density (including average density in such areas
greater than 500 persons per square kilometre);
o The size of each municipal population as well as its population growth
between censuses.
Whilst each of the mergers had its own specific contexts to be dealt with by the MDB,
some of the general points to be drawn from this are as follows:
o The degree of urbanisation varied significantly between and within
municipalities being merged. For example, in the case of Maletswai and
Gariep, both were highly urbanised, whilst in the case of Fetakgomo and
Greater Tubatse both former municipalities were not urbanised at all.
However these differ with the cases of the highly urbanised eThekwini and
the less urbanised Umdoni taking over separate parts of the former very
rural Vulamehlo.
o The degree of urbanisation masks the fact that even in non-urbanised areas,
people live in relatively high densities. For example, the area (in square
kilometres) containing over 500 persons per square kilometre varies
markedly from The Big Five False Bay (0,11 sq. kms) and KwaSani (1,42
sq. kms) having small areas of high densities compared with eThekwini
having over 1160 square kilometres at such higher densities.
o The densities within such areas of high density also vary markedly across
all municipalities. Often such settlements are informal settlements in which
the demands for urban services end up being greater than in more settled
areas.
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37
These data again reinforce the fact that there was significant differentiation across
municipalities being merged. In many of the demarcations, surrounding municipalities
which are functionally linked to a larger more urbanised municipality have been
incorporated or merged into the larger municipality. As is indicated below, these larger
municipalities often have a gre