Corruption, lack of transparency and skills, and incompetence are some of the reasons why municipalities across the country are broken and struggling to deliver services to their communities. Picture: Oupa Mokoena / Independent Newspapers Archives
Corruption, lack of transparency as well as skills, and incompetence are some of the reasons why municipalities across the country are struggling to deliver basic services to communities.
Millions of people, businesses, and families are not happy that the promised they voted for has not been prioritised. Basic services that include water, electricity, proper roads, and safety are not delivered to the public.
Residents and communities are embroiled in protest actions nearly every month because they are fed up with the lack of services.
Many blame the government and allege that corruption, irregular tenders, and payments were the reason for this crisis.
Lack of skills and knowledge were also mentioned.
Last month, the Johannesburg Water Electromechanical Manager, Gugulethu Quma, apologised to the city’s residents after they experienced water outages for almost two weeks but promised a speedy resolution to the crisis.
The water woes were also experienced in eThekwini municipality.
The City of Tshwane has also been under fire following the Cholera outbreak in Hammanskraal that killed more than 30 people.
Many suspected that this was caused by the Rooiwal Wastewater Treatment Plant in Pretoria. The people of Hammanskraal have been water problems for over 15 years.
In other municipalities, infrastructure continues to collapse but salaries were still paid and no one is accountable for their failure.
It’s a disaster in rural areas because this is where South Africans endure the worst pain of having to fetch water from streams of rivers.
Healthcare services are not entirely reliable because there are no good roads for emergency services vehicles to drive when performing their duties.
What is the purpose of municipalities?
Municipalities should provide autonomous and accountable governance for their residents, ensure that service delivery is consistent across the region, advance economic growth and social development, safe and conducive environment for the community.
They should also encourage communities to invest and be involved in the matters of local governance.
Service delivery means providing water, electricity, roads, and stormwater systems, to reticulate sewerage without spillage and to manage and dispose of solid waste accordingly.
South Africa consists of three divisions of municipalities, this includes metropolitan (metros), district, and local municipalities.
So far it has about over 250 municipalities, with eight metros in each province.
The metros across the country include the City of Johannesburg, the City of Cape Town, the City of eThekwini, Buffalo City, Mangaung, Nelson Mandela Bay, the City of Tshwane, and the City of Ekurhuleni.
Generally, district municipalities are responsible for capacity building and planning such projects that contain transportation, land use as well as economic growth.
Local municipalities are more towns and rural areas. However, in instances where the local government cannot perform its functions properly, the district may have to step in and help.
In March, Water and Sanitation Deputy Minister David Mahlobo said Rand Water and Umngeni-Uthukela Water Boards have been deployed to tackle water woes in the struggling municipalities that cannot constantly provide water to communities in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
He said this was done because metros were struggling to deliver services.
Meanwhile, in January, Water Minister, Senzo Mchunu promised that his department would now intervene in local municipalities to hold accountable officials who fail to deliver services to the people.
His plans to tackle the water woes included building infrastructure as well as maintaining and servicing the current ones. Accountability was a key factor in his plan.
“You cannot complain about the same things over and over again. If the current method does not work, try another one. And also communities must engage with their mayors and make sure that they account for their actions,” he said at the time.
In the same line, Mahlobo said the summit concluded with a positive outcome for the country but added that heads will now roll.
“If you pollute, you pay. Directives will be issued and people will be brought to court… accountability will happen,” he said.
He also highlighted the need for qualified people to hold office when it comes to providing services.
IOL Politics
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