27 December 2023
By Mbali Nala
The South African Local Government Association in KwaZulu-Natal (SALGA) has made strides in moving
from being a largely unknown organisation to being at the centre of social development service delivery.
The Asisho Campaign was about getting society to appreciate the need to be active citizens. SALGA now
outlinesthe state of local government in KwaZulu-Natal and the issues that impact local government. This
is for citizens to be informed and have a comprehensive view of local government performance.
Professionalisation of municipalities
In 2023, the depoliticizing of municipal employees suffered a heavy blow. The amendments to the
Systems Act were championed by SALGA and were intended to professionalize local government by
disallowing municipal employees from holding political office. The intention was not to deprive municipal
workers of having a political view or partaking in political party programmes.
However, municipalities are very peculiar organizations and the Systems Act amendment sought to
enhance professionalization. In an ideal environment, no public servant would hold both political and
administrative office. By permitting municipal workers to hold political positions, the High Court ruling in
November 2023 was a blow to the agenda to de-politicize and professionalize the public service.
SALGA will continue to engage the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) and IMATU to get a
consensus on how to de-politicize local government. It must be recalled that when the constitutional court
ordered the Systems Act to be amended, it did so on procedural grounds and did not rule on the merits
of the matter. The Constitutional Court has not ruled on the constitutionality of political office prohibition
for senior managers or employees.
Municipal audit outcomes
Some councils improved their audit outcomes in the year that ended in June 2023. Currently, 80 cents of
every Rand spent by municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal is spent in a clean or unqualified audit environment.
Improvement of the audit outcomes in this current year points to the resilience of municipalities under a
barrage of legislative burdens and revenue constraints that prevent the hiring and retention of skills.
We wish to congratulate Ulundi for improving from a Qualified audit to an Unqualified one. uMngeni, for
the past 2 years, has improved from 3 years of qualified audit opinions to two years of Unqualified audit
opinions. We congratulate Okhahlamba, King Cetshwayo, and uMhlathuze for clean audit opinions. For
the first time in the history of uMlalazi, we have a clean audit. Congratulations to these 4 municipalities.
Since 43 out of 54 municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal now have either an Unqualified audit opinion with
minor findings or a clean audit, it can be said that the local government sphere is now reporting at a
comparable and even better level than other spheres.
Ratepayers are facing rising cost of living.
When homeowners use all their disposable income to service bond repayments, they need help to keep
up with their rates and taxes. SALGA in KwaZulu-Natal notes with deep concern that interest rates remain
high and unchanged. This follows successive rate hikes. Interest rate increases negatively impact
municipalities and their ability to provide services to communities and pay their suppliers.
The timing of interest rate hikes could not have been worse for municipalities because it is compounded
by:
Record-high government debt – Government debt for municipal services in KZN has just passed
the R2.5 billion mark for the first time in history. When government and businesses fail to pay
or delay paying for the water, lights, rates and refuse removal services they receive,
municipalities often have to secure commercial bank loans to ensure that projects do not grind
to a halt. Exposing the sector to interest rate hikes and costs of servicing loans.
Low business confidence levels – as of 31 November 2023, the RMB/BER Business Confidence
Index has dropped to 31%. That means that less than a third of business executives are satisfied
with prevailing business conditions. Only in a high business confidence environment will
businesses invest in or expand. Municipalities cannot finance new water pipelines or new
electricity transformers when businesses do not grow.
Low levels of social cohesion and trust in government – South African Reconciliation Barometer
findings released on 14 December 2023 by the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation show
that South Africa has reached unprecedentedly low levels of trust and reconciliation in political
leadership and public institutions. According to the barometer, trust in leaders has dropped so
much over the past decade that 79% of South Africans in 2023 feel that leaders are
untrustworthy. When people lose trust in leaders, it is fertile ground for lawlessness.
Fuel price increases and load-shedding – In South Africa, 85% of the country’s electricity is
supplied by coal power stations. Yet, Eskom’s spending on diesel generation has increased
from under R1 billion in 2011 to now well over R30 billion a year. Eskom now spends R82
million on diesel daily or R56 000 every second of every day. StatsSA found that Eskom actually
produced less electricity in August 2023 than in August 2022. That does not build confidence
that we will be out of load-shedding in the near future. Electricity generation (production)
decreased by 6,4% year-on-year in August 2023. Electricity distribution (consumption)
decreased by 6,5% year-on-year in August 2023. Load-shedding forced municipalities to take
extreme measures to keep wastewater plants running and prevent water contamination. This
came at a considerable cost.
An outdated municipal funding model – The municipal funding framework remains
unresponsive to prevailing needs. Even when extreme situations arise, such as the impact of
Transnet backlogs on the road network of Richards Bay in the City of Umhlathuze, the local
government is not compensated commiserate to the harm not of the municipalities’ doing.
Load-shedding and Transnet rail backlogs are classic examples of how the 9% share of the
revenue for municipalities from the equal share is woefully inequitable.
Economic policy that negatively impacted small businesses –
o The decision by the Department Of Trade And Industry to cut import taxation of imported
chicken impacted small businesses negatively. This was compounded by a local aviation
flu, which dented hope for small producers.
o The relaxation of solar panel import taxation has suppressed local production of what will
be a highly demanded product for years to come.
Provincial government intervention
There needs to be funding support where municipalities are said to be under Section 154 or Section 139
interventions. Currently, this legislative tool of intervention is primarily a political intervention. It is also,
unfortunately, a method for cadre deployment for administrators with political interests while not being
subjected to meaningful performance management of government administrators, which means that
government support and intervention are only rhetorical.
