The basic premise of the report is that “Local Government is Everyone’s Business”.

Local government in South Africa has contributed to the achievement of a number of significant social and economic development advances, since the ushering in of the new democratic municipal dispensation in December 2000. The majority of our people have increased access to a wide range of basic services and more opportunities have been created for their participation in the economy.

Notwithstanding the valuable role that municipalities have played in our new democracy, key elements of the local government system are showing signs of distress in 2009. This report provides an analysis of the performance and state of local government and begins to point to key matters that must be attended to in the Turn Around Strategy for Local Government. Urgency, prioritisation, speed and timing will be important in addressing the critical issues identified in this report.

The new administration has a clear electoral mandate to deliver on key priorities that must ensure that visible, tangible and positive changes are felt in all our rural and urban communities. These must focus, inter alia on, the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and universal household access to basic services (uHABS) by 2014.

With this in mind, the 2009 Government Programme of Action committed to build a developmental state, improve public services and strengthen democratic institutions. This is the point of departure for the priority of intervening, stabilising and supporting local government in order for it to fulfil its core mandates.

This State of Local Government Report derives from the consolidated national report of the nine provincial reports, compiled following assessments jointly conducted across the country between April and August 2009. The assessment process and the consolidated National Report is the initiative of the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Mr Sicelo Shiceka. The assessments were designed to ascertain the root causes of the current state of distress in many of the county’s municipalities in order to inform a National Turn-Around Strategy for Local Government.

In the process of determining the baseline for this assessment, the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs analysed previous assessments and reviews of the state of local government as well as the evidence as to the degree of process attained. These assessments include in recent years, the 10 and 15 Year Reviews (The Presidency), The 1995 Local Government Review (dplg), and the current Policy Review of Provincial and Local Government (COGTA).

The Minister also reviewed the support programmes that have been put in place in recent years. Two key support initiatives included Project Consolidate (PC), and the 5 Year Strategic Agenda (LGSA). Both these initiatives have yielded some progress, first in upping the levels of hands-on support provided to local government, and secondly in creating a systemic mechanism and framework (the 5 KPAs) for local government to work within and report on. These interventions have however not been able to sufficiently address deep rooted problems and capacity challenges.

There have been a number of other government initiatives and programmes to advance service delivery and institutional support. These include the former Planning and Implementation Management Support (PIMS) Centres, the ISRDP and URP nodal programmes, the IDP analysis and training weeks, the Bucket Eradication programme, Siyenza Manje, the Ilima project (Old Mutual), and the donor supported Consolidated Municipal Transformation Programme (CMTP). A Policy Review on Provincial and Local Government was also undertaken by the dplg. Numerous other smaller programmes and projects have also taken place, largely in the local sphere of government.

Whilst all of the support programmes have assisted in specific ways, it is still clear that a number of stubborn service delivery and governance problems have been identified in municipalities over a number of years. These remain consistently at the forefront of government’s developmental challenges. These priority areas include:

• Huge service delivery and backlog challenges, e.g. housing, water and sanitation;
• Poor communication and accountability relationships with communities;
• Problems with the political administrative interface;
• Corruption and fraud;
• Poor financial management, e.g. negative audit opinions;
• Number of (violent) service delivery protests;
• Weak civil society formations;
• Intra - and inter-political party issues negatively affecting governance and delivery; and
• Insufficient municipal capacity due to lack of scarce skills.

From evidence to date, it is clear that much of local government is indeed in distress, and that this state of affairs has become deeply-rooted within our system of governance. Therefore underpinning the analysis are some key questions, such as how deep-rooted is the state of distress in our local municipalities, what are the causes, and through what measures do we address these fault-lines in our governance arrangements?

It is also evident that national government has allocated hugely significant sums of money to building municipal capacity over the years. In seeking to answer the question why outcomes have been so disappointing, it is clear government needs to begin to do things differently. In assessing the reality of poor municipal performance, cognisance needs to be taken of the unresolved problems identified in previous assessments, and the intergovernmental impact of this failure, both institutionally and for communities.

It is important to note that whilst the main focus of this report is on the problem areas in local government, this is meant in no way to detract from the sterling work being undertaken by many of our municipalities across the country. Many of the councillors and officials in these municipalities are working under difficult conditions and yet continue to inspire with their vision, leadership and commitment to do well under highly challenging environments.

All nine provinces went through the assessment process, bringing provincial and national officials together, and some politicians, to penetrate and examine the fault lines in the working of local government. The foundation for the assessments was simple: is the municipality delivering on the desired outcomes, and is it operating on a sustainable basis?

So in summary the central question that this report poses is, “What is the state of local government in 2009 and what must be done to restore the confidence of our people in this sphere of government by 2011 and beyond ?”

This Report does not only summarise the detailed findings from the provincial reports at a high level, but more importantly contextualises them within an assessment of the baselines for functionality and sustainability. The starting point is to identify the mismatch between intent and practice and to assess how far we have met the constitutional objectives for local government.

In so doing, we have begun to reassess which governance and service delivery standards constitute a functional municipality, and to what degree does the state need to re-shape and rationalise its resources to support the intent of developmental local government.

In broad terms a functional municipality is one that is actively striving to meet the outcomes as specified in the White Paper on Developmental Local Government (1998). In 2009 and beyond, there is a need to ensure that municipalities are responsive, efficient, effective and value for money is realised with the allocated public resources.

A Turn-Around Strategy for Local Government is thus needed that will be driven by an intergovernmental and social compact agenda for change. Our maxim must be that by working together, we can turn the tide on local government to create a better life for all.