By Zibonele Ntuli
WARD committee members from the Bojanala Platinum District Municipality in the North West have told President Thabo Mbeki to start "kicking butt" in the local government system.
President Mbeki was on a special municipal Imbizo here to establish if the local municipality was functional.
The president held meetings with municipal mayors, managers, and officials from the provincial department of local government, before meeting ward committee members, which he referred to as the "engine of the local government system."
This special Imbizo culminates from previous gatherings between government and communities, from which it was emerged that municipalities had problems delivering services.
Before interacting with the ward committee members, Mbeki said government was much more interested in knowing if there was good communication between municipalities, councillors, and ward committees themselves.
He said government also wanted to know if committees were capacitated and properly interacted with communities.
"When I see the demonstration by our masses it means to me that ward committee members are not performing according to their expectations. When the people see the mayors flying in and out of Cape Town and Durban, they think their needs are not attended to," he said.
During the interaction, ward councillors told the president that directors within the municipalities were holding back development in their areas, despite what had been agreed upon.
"I think you should kick butt in the local government system because officials such as directors are delaying development," said a visibly irate committee member.
Other ward councillors complained that the infrastructure was not completed and was done in bits and pieces. They also lacked allowances to perform their ward duties.
Some said they were not trained while others complained of facilities such as offices, and stationary that could be used to send official documents to employers. Others complained about traditional leaders, alleging the latter did not prioritise people's needs, and blamed mayors for not giving feedback to their ward councillors. There were also complaints about the lack of transport to commute between wards as they were far from each other.
In his response, Mbeki said the country needed a practical local government system that was functional. "We need a system where the local government ministry will check regularly what is happening in communities. I think it is incorrect that ward committee members do not have some form of identification so that communities can identify that they are indeed genuine.
"It is also unfair that poor people should travel and spend R30 to go to other wards to perform their duties," he said.
The president reminded the local government officials that the local government elections were approaching and if they wanted to continue in their positions they should show the people that they were good in delivering services.
He also lashed out at the provincial government and district municipalities for under spending funds meant to benefit the poor, saying this was a real problem." That unspent money could have build another road, house, clinic. But it's a bad problem that presents us with a good challenge that as you [people] have said that we must kick butt if those directors are delaying development," he said.
He then urged the official to spend these funds "so that our ordinary people should be proud of us".
Source: Butanes
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