OPINION

Ward committees cannot be expected to carry out their functions with no resources, argues Bonginkosi Masiwa

THE South African Local Government Authority (SALGA) held its third national conference in April 2007, aimed at addressing crucial issues affecting service delivery and improving local government in the country. This year’s conference, with the theme "Together strengthening local government to eradicate poverty and create jobs through accelerated service delivery", came at a time when most municipalities are faced with some of the most serious challenges in the rollout of social services in the new democratic dispensation.

These challenges are broad, but are sometimes specific to different municipalities, including financial mismanagement, inefficient and allegedly corrupt officials or councillors, and unresponsive and poorly resourced public participation structures such as ward committees.

The state has continued to set noble national service delivery targets, which can be used to hold government accountable.  Over the past few years, there has been a concerted effort by the three spheres of government to try and deal with some of the challenges municipalities face in the form of Project Consolidate – an intervention designed to shore up 85 identified ailing municipalities.

Addressing the conference, President Thabo Mbeki asked, among other things, whether SALGA had a strategy to improve its ability to anticipate tensions arising from communities, and if it had developed mechanisms that could be used to address conflict-laden community developmental issues. According to the president there had been tensions between the newly deployed community development workers (CDWs) and councillors in the past and he hoped that the two parties had resolved the misunderstanding on their roles and were working together in a complimentary manner. However the president made no mention of ward committees in his speech at the conference.

Amos Masondo, the current mayor of Johannesburg and also the chairperson of SALGA, uttered similar sentiments speaking of the need for ward committees and CDWs to compliment one another. Masondo spoke vaguely about the fact there was little information about processes and projects that were meant to capacitate the crucial structure of ward committees for greater effectiveness.

The fact that SALGA acknowledged that ward committees had not lived up to all expectations because of limited resources and capacity, could have been the basis for a motion to improve funds allocated to ward committees in an attempt to strengthen local democratic governance through community participation. The issue was not dealt with.

Here, one could ask if the constitutional imperative of development is based on volunteerism even though local government has a huge R128 billion slice of the budget pie.

Members of ward committees are not paid as governed by Section 77 of the Municipal Structures Act. Local government laws guiding ward committees have given local municipalities the power to formulate their own terms of reference for ward committees. Thus it is up to individual municipalities to decide what they will spend on the needs of ward committees.

It can be argued that this could be a fundamental weakness in its own right as many smaller municipalities lack the capacity or skills to develop proper sustainable systems to come up with and operate workable terms of reference for ward committees. It can also be argued that the legislation governing ward committees needs revisiting because entrusting municipalities as custodians of the wellbeing of ward committees is short sighted and is tantamount to an “unfunded mandate”. Here the recurring but significant question is: “How will the structure perform its developmental mandate with no money?”

Is the state not expecting too much from a bunch of unpaid volunteers who in many instances agree to get involved in the structure as a way of gaining a foot in the door to municipal employment? Ironically, in some municipalities, such as Buffalo City, they have a code of conduct for ward committees that clearly prohibits the use of positions to promote personal or private interests; and that their conduct should not be influenced or dictated by improper motives. Is this kind of conduct feasible given the fact that most ward committee members are generally very poor and illiterate?

Masondo strongly underscored the need for SALGA to continue the campaign for improved payment of councillors and for them to be treated as part of the elected national political service corps. Supporting the argument was the notion that if the remuneration of councillors is improved there will be no need for them to engage in corrupt practices.

A worthy question to ask would be whether ward committees are resistant to unethical conduct for the sake of personal gain. At the conference SALGA claimed that it had successfully placed itself as a leader with the ability to influence policy formulation and debates with other spheres of government.

If that is the case, then it is justified for one to question why SALGA as an association had not moved or carried forward a motion for the remuneration of ward committees in the same manner that it had done for councilors. SALGA has also nobly developed a very robust councillor induction programme with the strategic objective of promoting the building of capacity of councillors with accredited courses.

This is in stark contrast to SALGA’s non-existent policy on ward committees with no mechanisms in place to strengthen ward committees. Does this not contradict the stated theme of the conference: “Together strengthening local government to eradicate poverty and create jobs through accelerated service delivery”?  SALGA’s open lobbying for the improvement of the conditions of service for ward committees would have been a step in the direction of making volunteerism worthwhile for the majority of poor ward committee members. Furthermore, a push for non-monetary incentives to begin with would have been appreciated. Currently councillors receive allowances for travel, holding office, accommodation, use of personal facilities such as housing, cellphones, out-of-pocket expenses, together with pension and medical aid. Are we asking ward councillors to perform the same functions with no allowances?

It can be argued that initially ward committees barely took off as a result of members dropping out or simply resigning on the realisation that they were not going to get any form of remuneration for their contribution. A recent ward profiling survey conducted by Afesis-corplan in the 45 wards under Buffalo City Municipality earlier in the year revealed that besides requiring training to better understand their roles and functions, ward committee members repeatedly emphasised the need for a stipend together with other resources such as offices that would enable them to perform their functions adequately.

Hence it can be further argued that as long as people are not being paid for their time, large-scale resignations and drop-out rates will hamper ward committees which will, in any case, fail to attract the calibre of people needed. By failing to address the needs of ward committees, the conference seemed to have forgotten that the current socio-economic environment demanded that every person be gainfully engaged in one form of employment or another if they are to survive and live a dignified life.

The times for pure volunteerism have long passed. Society is dynamic and just as the age of the barter system for trade had elapsed, a new definition of volunteerism is needed in the 21st century.

South Africa is said to be one of the richer countries in Africa, yet this is not reflected when it comes to service delivery in poor communities and laws which are anti-poor. In as much as SALGA acknowledges that the ward committee structure is beset by capacity problems, it came wholly short of taking the lead in influencing and steering the policy debate around ward committee remuneration.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel encouraged SALGA members at the conference to make it one of their main objectives to intervene on behalf of the poor and vulnerable. According to the Greek philosopher Aristotle (cited at the SALGA conference): “The end of all action, individual or collective, is the greatest happiness of the greatest number,” including that of ward committee members.

SALGA indeed missed an opportunity to address a fundamental problem in the functioning of local government.

The Local Government Transformer Vol. 13 No. 3 Jun/Jul 2007