Question NW3875 to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

Reply:

Poor service delivery can be attributed to various factors including financial liquidity challenges; inadequate allocation of financial resources for infrastructure development; poor contract management; and poor maintenance of infrastructure. Additionally, corruption, poor governance and political infights and/or disagreements distract priorities and delivery of services within municipalities.

Addressing these issues require a comprehensive approach involving improved governance; effective municipal leadership; collaboration with strategic partners within local government, and strategies to address governance failures.

The state of local government (SoLG) report identified 66 municipalities as dysfunctional, and these municipalities had challenges across the key performance areas of political, governance, administration, financial management and service delivery. In response to getting these municipalities out of this state of dysfunctionality, the Department developed Municipal Support and Intervention Plans (MSIPs) to address the short and medium-term challenges identified in the SoLG report for each of the municipalities and key local government performance areas. The implementation of MSIPs is monitored on a quarterly basis to assess achievement of proposed actions; facilitate adjustments based on changing circumstances, and for accountability.

The Department, including its provincial counterparts, have various intergovernmental forums and engagements on support to improve municipal performance and service delivery. Provinces also have provincial structures that discuss similar matters, and some established the Rapid Response Teams or Multi-disciplinary teams to respond to municipalities that have service delivery challenges.

The Department provides the following support aimed at strengthening the capacity within municipalities as a complementary process to enable a conducive environment for improved service delivery:

• The Department, through the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent (MISA), supports municipalities by among others, placement of civil and electrical engineers to assist with infrastructure management and capacity building in municipal project management units.
• Use of the Municipal Systems Improvement Grant (MSIG) to stabilize institutions and governance systems. The implementation of the projects through MSIG includes capacity building for long term viability in targeted municipalities.
• Municipalities that experience liquidity challenges and adopted unfunded budgets are persuaded to develop budget funding plans. Some have developed financial recovery plans to improve their cashflow and minimise the use of conditional grants for operational cost.
• Strengthen oversight committees to exercise their oversight role in ensuring accountability.

End.