26 June 2006
By Chris Khumalo
Provincial and Local Government Minister Sydney Mufamadi has called on municipal leaders to curb bad governance, saying this practice should not be allowed to escalate out of control.
"Patterns of deviance must be fully understood and not allowed to escalate out of control," Mufamadi said when he officially opened a three-day conference of the South African Local Government Association (Salga) in Durban on Sunday.
He added that the successes achieved in his sphere of governance had been a mixed bag.
Mufamadi said there had been some positive achievements as a result of national government intervention, citing the Mafikeng council in North West, which managed to submit its financial statements in time, for the first time in five years.
But he warned that municipalities which did not respect the rule of law, were not likely to attract investments.
"We also need to avoid duplication between local government departments and municipalities,” he said, adding that he was pleased that as of April, 73% of Municipal Infrastructure Grants (MIG) had been used.
Mufamadi also revealed that by March 2005 the number of households using bucket toilets had dropped to 110,000 from 300,000.
Addressing the conference, Salga chairperson, Amos Masondo, noted that over the past few years it had become evident that institutional capacity and stability had emerged as a key factor in many municipalities.
He said some municipalities were still grappling with unstable labour relations and latent disputes that tended to lead to organisational paralysis, infighting between politicians and administrators and the poor role clarification between proportional and ward councillors.
Despite these challenges, Masondo said some successes had been achieved with 85% of households now having access to clean water, 63% having access to sanitation and 70% of households having electricity connections.
"Government has committed considerable resources to address service delivery backlogs through MIG and the Expanded Public Works Programme."
Masondo said successes achieved in the relatively short period were immense and expressed hope that there would be continued growth and further deepening of development.
Related article:
Read more