Johannesburg – President Cyril Ramaphosa has decried the state of local government, saying it is in an “extremely poor” shape in the run-up to the municipal polls.
Ramaphosa told a meeting of the ANC national executive committee on Friday that the poor state of local government, which is at the coal face of service delivery, was an indictment on the governing party.
“Local government, which is central to meeting this responsibility, is in an extremely poor state. With respect to overall audit outcomes, the AG found that most municipalities are now in a worse position than at the beginning of this term of local government,” he said.
“While 46 municipalities improved their audit outcomes, 61 municipalities declined. That is not only an indictment of the leadership of those municipalities; it is also an indictment of the ANC, which is the governing party in most of these councils,” he added.
Ramaphosa said the financial crisis in municipalities was part of a far broader crisis of governance, operational performance and legitimacy.
There was weak oversight and lack of accountability in municipalities, he said, adding that “fraud and corruption continue unabated”.
“There is a shortage of skilled leadership and management. This situation has contributed to declining levels of voter participation in elections and diminishing support for the ANC,” he said.
“This resulted in the loss of several key municipalities and the emergence of coalition governments.
“Our experience since then has demonstrated that coalition governments are incapable of effectively driving development, providing quality services or ensuring proper accountability,” he added. With the local elections looming, Ramaphosa said the party had to consider the impact of counsellor selection and deployment. “We should focus on three key positions – mayor, municipal manager and CFO [chief financial officer],” he said.
“Should we implement a policy that the two key officials in municipalities – the municipal manager and CFO – should only be confirmed after Cooperative Governance and Treasury respectively have vetted the candidates?” the president asked.
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