The numerous laws that govern the operations of the local government sphere are an expensive burden that is strangling municipalities and taking resources away from service delivery.
This was the view shared by delegates attending the South African Local Government Association’s (Salga’s) municipal legal practitioner forum at the Inkosi Albert International Convention Centre (ICC) in Durban on Thursday.
Salga president, councillor Bheke Stofile, said the sector was struggling, and spent more time and money complying with regulations that governed it while falling behind on its mandate.
The delegates said the sector was over-regulated, with one delegate describing municipalities as being seen by the national or provincial governments as “children they have to control”.
Another said the regulations were so intense, two national departments put out two separate regulations on how to deal with misbehaving senior officials, which led to confusion when it came to implementing the rules as municipal managers did not know which one to use when disciplining those officials.
Stofile said: “We meet at a time when there is declining public trust in the sector, service delivery protests characterised by increased violence, dissatisfaction with local government’s failure to provide uninterrupted basic services, and limited financial resources amidst unprecedented court cases against municipalities.”
The meeting takes place at a time when the city is besieged by these problems. eThekwini Metro has been battling to contain a damaging strike by the South African Municipal Workers’ Union (Samwu) that has caused extensive damage and left one person dead.
“There is a plethora and over-abundance of laws intended to structure the internal functioning and processes of local government with local government specific legislation totalling 15; regulations totalling 14 of which the MFMA (Municipal Finance Management Act) alone has a staggering 10 regulations and 36 notices.
“The legislative compliance obligations placed on local government are excessive. For example, a medium to small municipality pays in excess of R5 million to meet Generally Recognised Accounting Practices requirements,” Stofile said.
He said the legislative reporting requirements were excessive with about 75 legislative reporting requirements with monthly, quarterly and annual deadlines.
“A direct consequence of these unrealistic and, at times, impractical legislative obligations, placed on local government, is that it imposes huge financial, legal and administrative burdens on municipalities, such that instead of using funds and human resources to deliver services, they are directed towards meeting compliance and reporting requirements.
“A further consequence is that the legal framework requires highly skilled personnel for the implementation of particular processes, with municipalities opting to outsource such processes, leading to exorbitant consulting costs.
“The current plethora of laws may be guilty of strangulating local government, preventing it from executing its developmental mandate,” he said, adding that compliance with the legal rules had become more important than achieving the object of the rules.
eThekwini Mayor Mxolisi Kaunda said they hoped the symposium would use the current situation (the strike) in the city to reflect on some of the challenges faced by municipalities and develop mechanisms to deal with such incidents before they got out of hand.
“We must intensify educational programmes to educate our employees –whether they are affiliated to a union or not – about the importance of balancing their rights to strike with ensuring that the rights of others are not infringed upon,” said Kaunda.
The Mercury