WITH municipal elections taking place in 15 days, the ANC in Parliament said government has managed to strengthen legislation aimed at deepening the transformation of local government and addressing some of the challenges facing municipalities.
The party’s caucus has also urged South Africans to vote for the ANC because it has recognized the need for a strong and effective local government as articulated in the ‘Ready To Govern’ document, an ANC policy guidelines for a democratic South Africa adopted at the national conference in 1992.
ANC chief whip Pemmy Majodina said in a statement that some of the party’s achievements in Parliament includes the amendment of Municipal Structures Act 3 in 2021 to provide for, amongst other things, the prohibition of a councilor who was found guilty of a breach of a code of conduct for councilors for a period of two years.
“We have also recently promulgated the Traditional Khoi and San Leadership Act of 2019, which allows for the representation of traditional leadership in municipal councils. These additions and amendments to pieces of legislation sharpen our ability to pursue the fundamental transformation of local government and further provide impetus for development that is tailored specifically for our local communities,” said Majodina.
“We also admit that the transformative project we have embarked upon has not been as linear as some of our critics would like society to believe, it has been complex and characterized by shortcomings that we learn from. The Auditor General’s Municipal Finance Management Reports have pointed as much, many municipalities still fail to adhere to the promulgated legislation such as the Municipal Systems Act of 2000, this has directly led to challenges in service delivery and under-development.”
Majodina added that in the 2019/20 MFMA report entitled “Not Enough to go around, yet not the right hands at the till”, the Auditor-General sharply raised issues such as the collapse in governance, failure to fill critical vacancies, and financial mismanagement as being the contradictions which lead to corruption, malfeasance and the collapse of service delivery in most of our municipalities.
She said the ANC in Parliament is alive to these challenges and has already identified hotspot municipalities.
“We have been intervening using constitutionally available mechanisms, these also include invoking section 139 of the constitution to place municipalities under administration,” said Majodina.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s administration, said Majodina, is already intervening decisively on the unemployment, poverty, and under-development challenges which still characterizes many of our communities through the flagship program that is the District Development Model (DDM).
She said this is an inter-government approach to improve integrated planning and delivery across the three spheres of government with district and metropolitan spaces as focal points of government and private sector investment.
“The DDM is aimed at facilitating integrated planning, delivery and monitoring of Government’s development programmes through the concept of a joint “One Plan” in relation to 52 development spaces / impact zones through the establishment of national technical capacity as well as district hubs that will drive implementation of the program,” said Majodina.
“Finally, we would like to encourage the whole of society to vote for the ANC on the 1st of November 2021 and ensure that South Africa continues with the march forward towards the transformation of Local government to reflect the vision of a non-racial, non-sexist, and a democratic society.”
- Inside Politics
