FIDEL HADEBE | Efficient municipalities key to economic stability

In his State of the Nation Address recently President Cyril Ramaphosa cited some deeply worrying statistics on the number of municipalities that are dysfunctional.

These are municipalities that are in financial distress and generally in a crisis situation with no meaningful service delivery taking place. Residents are not getting much in the form of municipal services and the impact of this is felt across the entire system. Given the national state of affairs, especially as it relates to the electricity supply, it is likely that these municipalities will continue to be dysfunctional in part because when Eskom cannot deliver electricity they have nothing to provide to residents.

As is the case now, other areas such as water supply are beginning to be affected as residents spend long hours without running water as a result of infrastructure failures.

Already the country is experiencing an increase in the number of violent service delivery protests taking place in various parts. Although always dressed up as complaints about poor or non-existent service delivery, these protests also incorporate other social issues such as unemployment and crime, which are issues that, strictly speaking, fall outside of the competence of municipalities.

But residents do not really care about the different spheres of government and what each sphere is responsible for. They only know one government that is responsible for service delivery in society, including creation of jobs, and in a way cannot be blamed for this understanding.

As has been pointed out by different people, including political analysts, local government is the centre that holds things together in society. If municipalities are dysfunctional and cannot deliver the most basic of services it goes without saying that other areas of life will suffer.

Businesses do not invest their money where there is no service delivery and we are beginning to see what one can call “capital flight”, where businesses leave certain areas to go and set up in areas where they consider service delivery to be of acceptable standards. When businesses do this, they leave behind a lot of social pain as people lose their jobs and even small business operators who sell fat cakes and pap and vleis are left impoverished.

The current state of despair is likely to continue being a source of instability in various municipalities and it is likely that the next few months, and even years, are going to be even more dangerous for local government as communities experience increased despair driven by electricity problems, water, cost of living and crime.

We are already beginning to witness residents in some cases physically attacking the homes of municipal mayors or their relatives and this is a deeply worrying sign of things to come if the business-as-usual mindset is allowed to continue.

Even though the challenges are largely of a technical and financial nature, the leaders of our municipalities have to employ and deploy social mobilisation and communication tactics as part of keeping their communities  onboard and not allow a vacuum where residents are left disengaged. Municipalities must strive to keep their communities informed about the various challenges facing them and steps being taken to address them.

It is for the first time in our post-1994 dispensation that local government is faced with a combination of so many social and economic problems of load shedding, water supply, ballooning youth unemployment, lawlessness and a high cost of living.

What this situation calls for is a need for those in charge of this sphere of government, from mayors to councillors and municipal managers, to re-orientate their leadership style to fit the existing social and political climate and avert a total collapse of the system.

What our country is sitting with is not just a state of despair but it is despair bound together with anger that we have seen explode in recent times. Given the general state of affairs in the country, there is a strong likelihood that the explosion will repeat itself. The situation demands a new way of doing things and the business-as-usual approach has served its purpose. It is time we rest it.  

• Hadebe is a behaviour-change strategist and local government social consultant