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ADDRESS BY THE DEPUTY MINISTER OF COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS, MR OBED BAPELA, at the
87TH INSTITUTE OF MUNICIPAL FINANCE OFFICERS ANNUAL CONFERENCE, on “Integration of Traditional Leadership working with
Governance with Local Authorities,”03 October 2016 - Durban
IMFO President, Ms. Jane MasiteIMFO DirectorsIMFO Chief Executive Officer Mr Abbey TlaletsiExecutive Mayor of eThekwini Metro, Cllr Zandile GumedeCity Manager, Mr. Sibusiso SitholeMr. Sonwabo Gqegqe SALGA Ms. Caril Venter World BankMunicipal Finance Managers Senior Government OficialsMembers of the MediaLadies and Gentlemen andHonoured Guests
Programme Director:
It is a pleasure to address you today, in this your 77th year of existence. This
certainly underlines the importance of the work you do as an organization that
brings credebilty to the work of Municipal Finance Managers.
I am glad the Institute for Municipal Finance Officers (IMFO) chose the
beautiful city of Durban to host their annual gathering. The IMFO Conference
is the premier gathering for finance officials in the local government sphere.
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Charles Dickens Qoute: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all going direct the other way - in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.” UQoute…
I choose this particular qoute for a purpose which I will make a connection
later in my address.
The theme that you’ve chosen for this year’s conference is indeed thought-
provoking one, “Sustaining Municipal Viability amidst the Economic Distress.” The World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness Report
2016-2017, released last week, saw South Africa improve by two places to
47, out of 138 countries.
Despite this competitiveness report, and the fact that the economy grew by
3,3 percent in the second quarter, (let us be mindful that this is just an
indicator in the quarter of September we might get a different result, as the
economy is globally was hard pressed including South Africa). South Africa
still faces the prospect of almost minimal growth. It is under these
circumstances that we must all function effectively. And it is under these
conditions that your theme is most appropriate. Minimal growth translates into
less funds to spend. Municipalities will also carry this burden.
Your work is therefore even more vital, as you will be expected to do more
with less.
After perusing the programme, I have noted with great interest the topics that
you will tackle are the revenue value chain, risk management, budgeting,
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internal audit, the impact of ICT as well as the role of traditional authorities on
good governance and oversight. It is on the latter that I address you today.
In August the city of Durban also hosted the Traditional Leaders Indaba as we
sought to determine how to take forward the institution of traditional
leadership. The institution of traditional leadership is centuries old.
It is a reality that is with us. Many South Africans in both urban and rural
areas still pay homage to the institution. Chapter 12 of the Constitution
recognises the relevance and importance of traditional leadership, in this
modern era.
As you know, in August this year we hosted yet another successful local
government elections that saw over 15 million voters take to the polls. In
September, working with the South African Local Government Association
(SALGA) and other stakeholders, we saw the rollout of the Integrated
Councillor Induction Programme.
The programme aims to better equip councillors to execute their
responsibilities. For the first time traditional leaders will be involved in the
Councillor Induction.
We believe this will contribute towards advancing a common understanding
on the roles and functions of both parties, and assist in giving effect to
legislation that provides for the participation of Traditional Leaders in
Municipal Councils, ward committees and other government structures in the
local government sphere.
The need for such a collaboration is also reinforced by the launch of the
government-wide Back to Basics Programme in 2014, which is underpinned
by five pillars, namely, putting people first and engaging communities,
delivering basics services, good governance, sound financial management,
and building institutional capability.
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Last week SALGA in collaboration with the Financial and Fiscal Commission
(FFC) released the “Cost of Municipal Basic Services” report. The report
found that annual administrative costs across local government stood at
R42bn compared with overall operating expenditure to deliver services to the
poor at R35bn.
The report takes into account the costs associated with providing Electricity,
Water, Sanitation, Solid Waste, Roads and Storm Water, Cemeteries, Fire
Services and Municipal administration. These service offerings are
fundamental to all municipal activities.
The results of the study require some policy shifts on the side of government.
Among the proposals are to:
Investigate the development of norms and standards to address the
current unhealthy ratio of administrative costs to service delivery costs,
Investigate spatial optimisation to address the high capital spending on
roads
Municipalities must prioritise the renewal of municipal infrastructure
Emphasise the redistributive policy approach but with special emphasis
on balancing urban and rural service delivery provision.
This approach is essential to municipalities being able to fulfil their socio-
economic obligations. Which brings us to the role of traditional leaders and
the part that they can play in ensuring that municipalities are able to deliver
services effectively to citizens. Almost a third of South Africa’s population still
live in rural areas, especially in areas controlled by traditional leaders.
Even though South Africa is predicted that 80% of traditional communities
would be urbanized by 2050, as people move to towns and cities for better
opportunities.
Unless we adopt a model like China which is bringing development in rural
communities, you can find Robots, Roads, Malls with movie and Centers of
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communication by growing rural economy. In this way they still keep people to
cultivate the land and supply food to the cities and exports to other countries.
China is growing Rural Country side communities as the resource of growth in
the country.
Executive Mayor:
In giving strength to the department and alignment to the NDP goals, our strategic focus would be outlined in the following Five-Point Plan: (Five Pillars)
I. Building Sustainable Institution of Traditional Leadership and resolving all outstanding disputes, to stabilize and strengthen the Institution.
II. Protecting, Preserving and Promoting the African Cultural and Traditional and Customary way of life.
III. Transforming the Traditional Institution, Reviewing and Adapting of Policies, Legislation and Regulations in the democratic dispensation.
IV. Revival and promotion of the Socio-Economic activation to achieve a better life for people in Cities, Towns, Rural, and Traditional Communities.
V. Coordination of Interfaith to Promote Social Cohesion and Nation Building.
It is our collective responsibility as we model our budgets to take into
consideration the importance of projects aimed at providing services, too
many of our people who fall under the jurisdiction of traditional leaders.
It is is of importance of budgeting is to ensure that officials work within the
allocated funding for projects and minimize any over spending and ensure
sound financial accountability.
Integration of Traditional leadership governance with local authorities
Ladies and Gentlemen:
The institution of traditional leadership has been in existence on the whole
continent of Africa from time immemorial. Incorporating traditional leadership
in the democratisation process contributes to the criteria of representation and
legitimacy while eliminating the possibility of excluding integral members of
society from their input in governance.
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‘’’Moreover, traditional leaders are vital as active members in political
institutions to guarantee that government is responsive to its constituents by
fostering feedback mechanisms between government and the public.
Traditional leaders in rural communities have a significant level of trust placed
on them by their people. They have the ability to direct behaviour and
decisions, and exercise their influence by engaging in activities such as
solving disputes and managing resources. We saw this role played effectively
in the run-up to the elections, where the role of traditional leaders was vital to
bringing peace and stability to Vuwani.
However, traditional leaders have argued that the provision is too vague and
that the role needs to be clearly spelt out as is done with elected municipal
councillors. The traditional leader’s role is subject to the Constitution, which at
the same time extends elected municipalities, to areas under the jurisdiction
of traditional leaders, assigning them specific powers and functions.
It does not spell out a specific role for traditional leaders, but awards power to
the national legislature to pass legislation to provide for the role of traditional
leadership as an institution at local level (sphere) on matters affecting local
communities.
Although traditional leadership is enshrined and recognised in the Constitution
and other legislation, they lack a clarified role in local governance.
This has brought confusion to rural areas, which has weakened democracy,
and in particular, caused deficiencies in governance in these areas. Citizens
who live under these dual systems of authority do not draw a sharp distinction
between hereditary chiefs and elected local government officials.
Traditional leaders of all political persuasions are dissatisfied with their
constitutional and legal position with regard to governance.
They argue that their status and powers and functions have been whittled
away under the Constitution and the post-1994 government. These leaders
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further argue that the Constitution should have spelled out their functions as it
did for municipalities.
Unfortunately, since 1994, this controversy has been raging over the role of
traditional leaders in local government. Acts such as the Local Government
Transition Act, the Local Government Municipal Structures Act, and the Local
Government Demarcation Act, provided for a restructured local government
system, the demarcation of municipalities, and the 2000 municipal elections
that ushered in a new system of local government. Controversy arose
because these Acts established wall-to-wall municipalities over the whole
country, including the rural areas, which were under the jurisdiction of
traditional leaders. Currently, in rural areas, municipalities have powers and
functions that largely overlap with those exercised by traditional leaders.
As a result, and by virtue of the constitutional provisions in Chapter 7 of the
Constitution, which spells out the functions of “wall-to-wall‟ municipalities, the
powers and functions of traditional leadership and traditional authorities,
whether under customary law or statute, are by implication curtailed. The
impact hereof is compounded by the fact that traditional leaders are afforded
ex officio council observer status by the Constitution.
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Although the Constitution establishes their ex officio status, the Municipal
Structures Act relegated their influence to a non-voting role.
The reduction of the status of traditional leaders unleashed a political battle,
which came to the fore in the run-up to the 2000 elections, and has remained
largely unsolved to date. Therefore, still, traditional leaders seek recognition in
local government in rural areas i.e. in category C municipalities.
The base of us u under siding the loca gov policy, is the White Paper on LG
which gives greater plan. On traditional leaders. Section 81 of the structured
act and their role is to be fully explained.
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The Municipal Systems Act seeks to address the situation of traditional
leaders in that it is very clear that municipalities must develop a culture of
municipal governance that complements formal representative government
with a system of participatory governance, and must for this purpose
encourage and create conditions for a local community to participate in the
affairs of the municipality.
As Municipal Finance drivers let us look at the - out of pocket expenses to
support traditional leaders active participation in local government affairs,
there are some municipalities who provide financial support, whilst there are
others who don’t provide such support, it is important that we create a single
policy for the remuneration of traditional leders attendance of Council
meetings.
The Municipal Structures Act consequently indicates that “Traditional
authorities…may participate through their leaders,… in the proceedings of the
council of a municipality, and those traditional leaders must be allowed to
attend and participate in any meeting of the council” (Municipal Structures Act,
117 of 1998, S81(1).
It is further states that the number of traditional leaders that may participate in
the proceedings of a municipal council may not exceed 20% of the total
number of councillors in that council, but if the council has fewer than 10
councillors, only one traditional leader may so participate (Municipal
Structures Act, 117 of 1998, section 81 (20(b)).
The Back to Basics (B2B) programme reinforced the role of traditional
leadership. B2B reporting since October 2014 indicate that on average, the
participation rates are generally much lower than the allowed percentages in
the Municipal Structures Act. However, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo are
making strides in this area.
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The key problem that impedes traditional leaders in the promotion of
municipal service delivery, is that by law municipalities are responsible for
ensuring the delivery of basic services to all South Africans.
In my view, in order to carry out this responsibility, municipalities will need to
have a joint service delivery initiative with traditional leaders. Correspondingly,
government’s objectives of municipal service delivery will be enhanced as
soon as traditional leaders are fully integrated into, and are vested with
legislative powers in the democratic structures of the country. The
participation of traditional leaders in the promotion of municipal service
delivery will add value in redressing municipal service delivery inequalities
and imbalances in South Africa.
Partnerships between municipalities and traditional councils are important,
and any partnership between a municipality and a traditional council must be
based on the principles of mutual respect and be guided by principles of co-
operative government.
Back to Basics: Pillar number 4 “Ensure Sound Financial Management and Accounting”
Madam President of IMFO:
One of the five pillars of the Back to Basics programme is that of ensuring
sound financial management and accounting. We realised a long time ago
that our people are at the heart of our efforts. In 2007 we created regulations
that spelled out the minimum competencies for officials responsible for
financial and supply chain management.
The regulations covered aspects such as minimum higher education
qualifications; work-related experience,
core managerial and occupational competencies and the financial and supply
chain management competencies required by municipal officials in order for
them to discharge their duties under the Municipal Finance Management Act.
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These minimum competency levels sought to professionalise the local
government sector to make it a career choice for talented officials and to
some extent mitigate some of the root causes of poor financial management
and service delivery. Affected municipal officials had 8 years to attain the
prescribed requirements.
In support of this, a structured training programme as well as a graduate
internship programme, was introduced. We believed that this would go some
way to mitigating the shortage of skilled financial management personnel
within municipalities. The Financial Management Grant of just over R800
million was made available to municipalities. This in addition to funding from
the donor community, LGSETA and the municipalities’ own resources.
The final cut-off date to meet the minimum competency requirements was 30
September 2015. No further extensions were allowed. National Treasury’s
database indicates that 9 700 municipal officials embraced the regulations,
with varying levels of compliance.
While there were instances of non-compliance, this did not take into account
other relevant qualifications held by officials. Non-compliance does not
necessarily translate into incompetence.
Just this week we also released the Draft Municipal Staff Regulations, which
will set out the competencies for a variety of positions. This will ensure that we
have the requisite skill sets across the board and start building capacity within
municipalities.
Corruption and Local Government
The Department of Cooperative Governance has been at the forefront of
tackling the demon of corruption in the local government sector. To date 109
forensic reports were received. They focused on areas such as irregular,
wasteful and unauthorised expenditure, procurement irregularities,
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appointment irregularities, as well as cash theft, fraud, corruption and
malicious administrative practices.
Unfortunately, the challenge is that many of the recommendations emanating
out of these reports are not being fully implemented, with municipalities
themselves often being the main culprit. Municipal Council resolutions were
not taken on how to actually implement these recommendations.
In order to monitor the implementation of recommendations by municipalities,
the Department is now establishing provincial forums with district
municipalities. Some of the forensic reports are being referred to other
investigating agencies, given the amount of time that has lapsed since the
reports were commissioned. The Department is engaging with the National
Prosecuting Authority, the Special Investigating Unit, Asset Forfeiture Unit and
other law enforcement agencies to try to ensure that proper action is taken.
Another problem identified is that even after irregularities and transgressions
were proven, there was often lack of consequence management by
municipalities. The Department is monitoring disciplinary cases in
municipalities, and those officials found to have transgressed would be
included in a database of dismissed staff, held by the Department, to prevent
them from simply moving to other municipalities.
We believe that our work is bearing results.
Auditor-General’s Report on Audit Outcomes
The Auditor-General’s Report on Audit Outcomes for the 2014-15 financial
year, release in June, showed an encouraging improvement in audit results
over the past five years from 2010-11 to 2014-15.
The number of municipalities that received financially unqualified audit
opinions with no findings (commonly known as “clean audits”) increased from
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13 to 54. In addition to this, 18 municipal entities also achieved clean audit
status, taking the total number of clean audits to 72 in the current period.
Regressions during this period stood at 13%, while 34% of municipalities
recorded the same outcomes as in 2010-11.
There was also a significant reduction in adverse and disclaimed opinions,
which decreased from in excess of 30% in 2010-11 to about 11% of
municipalities in the current period.
These outcomes were the result of CoGTA working more closely with SALGA,
National Treasury and the AG’s office.
Back to Basic Pillar One of putting people first
Government officials:
Local government is the primary site for the delivery of services in South
Africa. Since 1994 tremendous progress has been made in delivering services
to the people. While local government has made significant achievements in
delivering services to the previously marginalised communities, the backlog is
still immense. This situation is further exacerbated by the growing inward
migration into cities, resulting in the emergence of informal settlements and an
increased demand for services escalating into a number of community
protests.
In the local government sphere, municipal councils are obliged by law to
develop a culture of local governance that shifts from strict representative
government to participatory governance, and must for this purpose,
encourage, and create conditions for residents, communities and other
stakeholders in the municipality to participate in local affairs.
In addition, these laws require of local government to develop strategies and
mechanisms to continuously engage with citizens, business traditional
leaders, and community groups.
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COGTA has developed a number of public participation platforms over the
years to contribute to the attainment of public participatory governance. Ward
Committees have emerged as one of the key institutional mechanisms
intended to contribute towards bringing about people-centred, participatory
and democratic local governance and Traditional leaders play an important
role in ward committee as ex-officio. Ward Committees have been positioned
as critical structures through which public participation in local government is
to be achieved and most importantly form a link between Ward Councillor,
traditional leader, the community, other relevant stakeholders and
municipality.
The next phase of the B2B programme will see the implementation of a 10-
Point Plan. This includes a focus on more meaningful engagements with
communities – rather than the provision of participatory mechanisms for
compliance purposes.
In Conclusion
Ladies and Gentlemen…
The institution of traditional leadership plays a vital role in our democracy. The
Back to Basics programme has encouraged the participation of traditional
leaders in the meetings of the municipal councils.
The involvement of traditional leaders in the Councillor Induction Programme
has added a new dimension to the effectiveness of traditional leaders in the
interactions at local government level. We believe that further participation
and clarification of the roles of traditional leaders in the local government
sphere will ensure greater accountability to citizens.
Let me end with Charles Dickens Charles, as per in my opening “ it was the
season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope..
Municipal Managers you are our only light to ensure that the budget is used
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correctly, you are our only hope that budget will end up in the planned
projects, please can we take care of the Finances not to be dictated by those
who are not in Finiancial Managers.
After the best of times, it was the age of wisdom, you have the wisdom and it
is the age of wisdom now. It is the best of times in South Africa Local
Government clean financial audit is in the rise so that we remain in the bed of
times.
The professionalism of the sector has grown, more well trained people are in
the field to abide by the polio and procedures MFA. To stop corruption and to
be deafened. It was a season of light as we continue to be the beacon of hope
in improving the quality of life.
It was a spring of hope to build a united county to end poverty and
unemployment. We can still do more and better the issues of education and
inequality are history.
Qoute “As Martin Luther said “darkness can't drive darkness only light will
drive darkness. All of us will see the vision.” UnQoute…
I wish you well with your deliberations over the next few days and look
forward to hearing your suggestions on how we can improve the functioning of
the local government sector.
I Thank You.
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