The Premier of the North West Province, Mme Thandi Modise;

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ADDRESS BY THE MEC FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS, HON. CHINA DODOVU, ON THE OCCASION OF THE POLICY DEBATE ON BUDGET VOTE 9 : LOCAL GOVERNMENT AND TRADITIONAL AFFAIRS.

17 MAY 2012

Honourable Speaker;

The Premier of the North West Province, Mme Thandi Modise;

Members of the Provincial Legislature;

Executive Mayors and Mayors;

Dikgosi tsa rona tse di tlotlegang;

Members of SALGA Provincial Executive Committee;

Acting HoD and Senior Management of the DepartmentMunicipalities;

Leaders of Labour and Civic Movements;

Comrades and Compatriots;

Distinguished guests;

Ladies and Gentlemen

Honourable Speaker,

I take with pride and high regard the confidence displayed in me by the North West Provincial Government under the leadership of the Honourable Premier Mme Thandi Modise and my political organisation the ANC to be entrusted with the task of anchoring change and development in the sphere of Local Government and Traditional Affairs.

I indeed also count it a privilege to be afforded this opportunity to table the budget policy statement for the financial year 2012/13. This policy speech takes place during a significant year in the history of our country, as the ANC marks one hundred years of existence.

As we note in our Organisational Renewal Document towards the National Policy Conference, this centenary is not just a narrow party political celebration. Given the role and place of the ANC in the evolution of South Africa in the twentieth century, the history of our movement and that of South Africa are objectively inseparable over the past century.

Within the context above, tomorrow the 18th of May 2012, all progressive and patriotic forces in South Africa will pay homage to one of our greatest leaders, a true revolutionary, a patriot indeed, Tata Walter Sisulu who was born on the 18th May 1912 and that this year we mark 100th year anniversary of his birth which he shares with the liberation movement he lived and died for.

Honourable Speaker, I will therefore use this budget speech to pay tribute to Tata Walter Sisulu for the indelible contribution he made in bringing about freedom in our land. We must salute this freedom fighter who lead by example and who have left us a legacy of the true meaning of courage, sacrifice and determination in pursuit of a noble goal of equality, prosperity and justice for all.

As we walk along the path and the solid foundation laid by Tata Sisulu, we should owe a special debt of gratitude to him because he has enriched our lives with the magic of his words, the enchantment of his images, the acuity of his insights and the magnitude of his vision.

The selfless work of Tata Sisulumust be an example and inspiration to successive generations of leaders as we continue to tussle with the challenges presented by the current democratic dispensation particularly in the areas of local government and traditional affairs.

Honourable Speaker, our national focus and policy imperatives for the financial year 2012-13 is purely on outcome-based planning. As local government is at the coal face of service delivery, all eyes are on us to create a responsive, accountable and efficient local government. We therefore today in this august house, commit to an efficient, effective and development-orientated institutions of local government and traditional affairs.

We must do so because the main lessons arising from the first and second term of local governmenthave shown that its transformation is one of the most complex projects of state transformation since 1994, and we must be the first to admit that the tasks to transform it have proven to be more complex and protracted than was initially anticipated.

As we speak today, the following remain the challenges facing this sphere of government:

1. Poor leadership, governance and oversight at municipal councils
2. Lack of administrative leadership in municipalities
3. Poor or lack of service delivery
4. Poor financial management and controls and persistent negative audit outcomes
5. Lack of public involvement in service delivery and governance matters and
6. Fraud and corrupt practices as well as non-compliance to legislation

Honourable Speaker, the bottom line is thatas we sharpen and deepen our understanding of these problems and challenges, we need to speedily find solution to them as some of the municipalities are nearing collapse both in terms of administration and governance which negatively affect service delivery.

We inevitablyneed to build partnerships and further mainstream our hands-on support to local government over the next few years.

As we do so, we must be mindful of the profound responsibility we bear to continue the struggle to transform our society and to achieve the strategic objectives of the national democratic revolution. What propels us must be a burning desire to satisfy the spiritual and material wellbeing of our people.

We must be steadfast in our commitment to better the lives of the people of the North West Province. In fact, what underpins our conviction should be an unflinching commitment to create a new set of opportunities and challenges for the course of municipal transformation and development.

Through our undiminished vitality and determination, our activities, our interest, our actions and our pronouncements, must remain for millions of our people, a constant source of hope and encouragement.

Reflections and Milestones on previous commitments

Honourable Speaker, in the past financial year,our department played a pivotal role in coordinating and facilitating the 2011 Local Government Elections which were subsequently declared free and fair by the IEC.

These electionshave ushered in a new battalion of 850 councillors who are expected toconfront head-on, the challenges and complexities facing the localgovernment in our province.

To complement the work of councillors, by the end of July 2011, our Department rolled out a programme to induct 3830 ward committee members on the legislative framework, IDP processes, budgeting, code of conduct, council meeting procedures and public participation.

During this period, with bare minimal resources, 380 ward committees comprising of 3500 were inducted. This was possible, I am told, through partnership between our Department and SALGA.

I am also informed that one Mr Khuduga Ishmael Lesabe, an employee in the Department, who at the age of 60, postponed his retirement to help the department to deal with this mammoth task. Our Department will surely be indebted to him as the champion of highest calibre. If only many youngsters can match your performance sir, our government will reach greater heights.

To-date, 380 out of 383 ward committees have been established with 3 outstanding in the Rustenburg Municipality.

Honourable Speaker, it is worth noting that in February this year, the Department hosted the Local Government Summit with a view of bringing together different stakeholders.

The main objective of the summit was to share ideas on how to accelerate service delivery and to measure performance of our municipalities. The major achievement of that gathering was the adoption of an integrated service delivery plan at ward level, and as part of strengthening public participation, a ward based model, was adopted by the summit.

As part of improving sound labour relations at municipal level I am pleased to announce that our Department has in collaboration with South African Local Government Bargaining Council and SALGA, facilitated the establishment of Local Labour Forums in all the 23 municipalities in the Province.

The other milestones recorded during the period under review, included the resuscitation of capacity development intervention project to support good governance in Naledi, Ratlou, Mamusa, Tswaing, Maquassi Hills, Ventersdorp, Kgetlengrivier and Moretele. This was a joint partnership between Department of Cooperative Governance (COGTA) and the Institute for Democracy in Southern Africa (IDASA).

Honourable Speaker, it is in the best interest of good governance and improved service delivery to fill all critical posts at municipal level more especially the appointment of Section 56 managers. To this end, the Department started to assist Municipalities in the filling of these posts in line with the requirements of the Municipal Systems Act as amended last year.

It will beimportant for all our municipalities to implement this Act as it will help them to recruit and appoint qualified and competent persons to help them to achieve developmental objectives of local government. In line with our mandate, we will help our municipalities in this regard to ensure compliance.

Honourable Speaker,during the period under review, the amalgamation of Kagisano and Molopo local municipalities was successfully completed and a new municipality namely Kagisano-Molopo Local Municipality was created.

The Department is currently in the phase of nourishing this municipality with post-amalgamation support to strengthen good governance and as well as to improve service delivery, more especially in the wake of protest marches and demonstrations which the municipality has experienced in the recent period.

In partnership with Department of Corporative Governance and SALGA, the Department have facilitated the speedy payment of the Once-Off Gratuity Payment for eligible ex-councillors who served their full term from March 2006 to May 2012.

To live up the imperatives of a truly caring government, to date 261 councillorshave already received payments and the outstanding ones will be paid before the end of the financial year.

The Department also managed to appoint 4 CDW District Coordinators and CDW Supervisors in 18 of 19 local municipalities. These appointments were done in order to strengthen and improve the effectiveness, efficiency, responsiveness of ourservice programme and to better our monitoring mechanisms.

Honourable Speaker, other highlights and achievements recorded by the Department during the previous financial year include the following:

a.The successful implementation of the Artisan Programme for FET Learners which entails the deployment of 40 learners at municipal level. These learners include those with rare skills like artisans, electricians, plumbers, motor mechanics and fitters. Our hope is to secure their permanent placement in our municipalities to improve service delivery.

b.The establishment of MuniMEC as a platform to improve engagement and partnership is another important milestone in this regard. The biggest challenge is to ensure the functioning of this forum to improve coordination and joint planning between our spheres of government.

Honourable Speaker, we note with great concern that there has been a number of service delivery protests and unrests in different municipalities. As a result, the Departmentestablished a “Protests Task Team” which has been instrumental in coordinating responses for memoranda submitted during protest marches by dissatisfied communities and concerned groups.

It should be noted that this Protest Task Team is engaging withmunicipalities and concerned groups affected to forge partnerships and to ensure pro-activeness in attending to the issues and problems which lead to these service delivery protests.

Honourable Speaker,one of the important program of the Department was to fight fraud and corruption. Former Georgian stateman, Eduard Shevardnadze once noted:

“Corruption has its own motivations, and one has to thoroughly study that phenomenon and eliminate the foundations that allow corruption to exist”.

Corruption is still an unruly and uncontrollable infant – a challenge that diminishes the advances we made to build a better life for our people.

As a nation redressing the wounds and scars of active economic exclusion and years of inequality, we should now know better that self-enrichment through unscrupulous means is equal to casting capital punishment on the defenceless poor.

Honourable Speaker, during the previous financial year, the Department in partnership with COGTA have conducted anti-corruption workshops in 4 district municipalities in the province, and to date I am pleased to announce that anti – fraud and corruption committees have been established in these 4 districts and policy campaigns and awareness have also been conducted.

Honourable Speaker, in the past financial year we have reported that we have appointed a service provider to implement a revenue enhancement project in five municipalities. To date, we are pleased to report that these five municipalities namely Mafikeng, Tswaing, Naledi, Lekwa-Teemane and Ventersdorp have benefited from phase 1 of the project.

Systems and procedures were developed to guide municipalities in areas of legal and institutional administration, meter installation and reading, billing of consumers, receipt management, credit control, debt management, indigents management, customer care and service departments controls.

In a quest to aid municipalities experiencing financial problems, the Department has laboured in partnership with the Provincial and National Treasuries to develop financial recovery plans for Mafikeng, Madibeng, Tswaing, Ventersdorp, Lekwa-Teemane and Naledi Local Municipalities.

Honourable Speaker, we are also pleased to report to this house that our Department has assisted the Kagisano - Molopo local municipality with the financial planning and management process through the transitional and amalgamation phase, and the Development Bank of Southern Africa facilitated thefinancial and technical expertise required to close their books, reconcile assets, and to finalize the 2009/10 Annual Financial Statements.

Ventersdorp, Tswaing, Matlosana, Ramotshere, and Mafikeng local municipalities were also assisted with the review of their budgets, whilst Kgetleng-rivier, Tswaing, Kagisano, Naledi municipalities were assisted with the calculation of property rates tariffs for 2011/2012 income budget.

Honourable Speaker, all the19 local municipalities are implementing the Municipal Property Rates Act (MPRA). 14 of these municipalities commenced the implementation in July 2009 and are currently in various stages of the development of the 2nd generation valuation rolls for implementation by 1st July 2013.

All the municipalities in exception of Kagisano – Molopo received their Municipal Systems Improvement Grants.

Honourable Speaker, we are one of two provinces where more than half of the municipalities did not submit their financial statements for audit within the legislated time frames. This situation is unacceptable and it has got to be attended to.

This has adverse implications for the timely exercise of oversight by those charged with governance and may defer the opportunity for accelerated movement towards the achievement of a clean audit in line with operation clean audit 2014 objectives.

Department will be in discussion with the relevant partners which include the Department of Treasury, Office of the Auditor General, SALGA, Portfolio Committees on Public Accounts and on Local Government and Traditional Affairs to correct this situation.

Honourable Speaker,one of the biggest problems facing municipalities is their inability to spend their allocated Municipal Infrastructure Grant. By the end of March this year, municipalities had only spent 50% of these funds to improve infrastructure and eradicating service delivery backlog.

This matter has got to be urgently attended to and the establishment of the Project Management Units in municipalities will immensely improve the situation.

Honourable Speaker, allow me to indicate to this house that the Department has a good record of compliance when coming to the adoption and submission of IDPs by municipalities which stands at 100%, and we are hopeful that this trend will be continuedduring the generation of the new IDPs by next month.

During the past financial year, the Department has also reviewed and aligned 6 Spatial Development Plans (SDFs) forLekwa – Teemane, Maquassi Hills, Tlokwe, Ventersdorp, Tswaing, Moses Kotane and Dr. Kenneth Kaunda District Municipality.

Mmusa Kgotla, ntlha e ke e botlhokwa thata mo setshabeng sa naga ya rona, risk reduction and emergency preparedness have taken a new dimension over the years.But we must remember though that major emergencies, disasters and other crises never occur at convenient times. The magnitude of human suffering caused by these events is huge, and many aspects of people’s lives are affected – health, security, housing, access to food, water and other life commodities.

Honourable Speaker, Traditional leaders are not only an integral part of the system of local government, but are also a vital element in the social, political and cultural establishment of our communities.

Our understanding is that the institution of traditional leadership and the institutions of the modern government are located along the line where the traditional world meets the modern-state administration.

In our province, Traditional leaders continue to play a tremendous role in conflict resolutions pertaining to land and mineral resources, chieftaincy, succession, criminal and civil cases – as well as adding meaningful inputs in the administration of the local government system.

The House of Traditional Leaderstherefore established in our province continuesto carry out an advisory role in government. A significant part of good governance and democratic participation though lies in the overlooked relationship between the government and traditional authority and the opportunities these institutions provide for bringing development to the lives of our people, especially in rural areas.

To that effect Honourable Speaker, the work of our Department in line with its commitment to improve and equip traditional authorities with relevant resources is progressing well. So far, the Department has allocated thirty-five (35) vehicles to Traditional Councils and has erected eleven (11) traditional council offices in Taung, Makgobistad, Khunoana, Lebotloane, Ramokokastad, Mabaalstad, Tlokweng, Mabeskraal, Maboloka, Ga-Motlatla and Pitsedisulejang.

Magosi a tlotlegang, our commitment to servicing your institutions is not limited to physical resources. We continue to allocate subsidized salaries to employees of traditional councils as well as giving a once-off advances to these offices annually.

It is equally pleasing to note that all members of the House of Traditional Leaders in our Province as well as some headsmen are on payroll – meaning they are receiving a monthly stipend and related benefits.

Be that as it may, we are also keen to work with you on a range of policies, which, among other things, include policy on unity and diversity, initiation, traditional leaders’ protocol, and family trees,as well as the remuneration.

I am pleased to announce to this house that this Department has set up the Provincial Committee of the Commission on Traditional Leadership Disputes and Claims enjoined by section 26A of the Traditional Leadership and Governance Framework Act.