Premiers have reported that poor performance of local government is hampering the ability of provinces to drive pressing economic recovery initiatives urgently needed by the country.
This is according to President Cyril Ramaphosa, who was delivering a keynote address at the South African Local Government council of mayors event held at the East London International Convention Centre on Thursday.
Ramaphosa said there is no longer a diagnosis needed for the problems besetting local government, adding that the challenges are laid bare by the reports of the office of the auditor-general.
“When local government fails, it is not just service delivery that fails. It isn’t just that our people’s expectations are not met. The failure of local government has a direct and material impact on economic growth and jobs,” said the president.
“The failure of local government is essentially the failure of government as a whole. If local government succeeds, all of government becomes a success.”
Ramaphosa said an analysis of failures of local government shows poor political leadership capacity, weak administrative management, poor financial administration, and the inability to collect revenue and degenerating infrastructure, among others.
The president reminded mayors that the White Paper on Local Government states that developmental local government requires a political leadership to be at the forefront.
Mayors must provide community-wide leadership and vision, constantly build the council’s capacity to make policy judgements and be accountable and transparent, said Ramaphosa, adding that the political leadership of municipalities should ensure that taxes are utilised to the maximum benefit of the local community.
“Building on these leadership requirements, I call on mayors and executive mayors to serve the communities with honesty, diligence and selflessness.
“Not only will this place them at the centre of responding to the weaknesses as identified in the problem statement, but more so place them at the epicentre of a local government leadership that positively contributes towards regaining and rebuilding trust and confidence of society in this sphere of government.”
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