By Simon Nare
Delivering his State of the Nation Address (SONA) in Cape Town on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa said government intends to review the funding model for municipalities as many of them do not have a viable and sustainable revenue base.
Ramaphosa said that in part this has happened because many municipalities lack the technical skills and resources required to meet people’s needs.
“Many municipalities have not reinvested the revenue they earn from these services into the upkeep of infrastructure,” Ramaphosa told MPs.
He added that many of the challenges in municipalities arose from the design of the local government system.
“Starting this year, we will work with our municipalities to establish professionally managed, ring-fenced utilities for water and electricity services to ensure that there is adequate investment and maintenance,” Ramaphosa said.
“We will therefore undertake extensive consultation to develop an updated White Paper on Local Government to outline a modern and fit-for-purpose local government system.”
The president said the government will also continue to work with traditional leaders in the implementation of local development programmes.
He also said the national government will expand its support to municipalities that require assistance, drawing on the lessons of the Presidential eThekwini Working Group.
“We are seeing great progress in eThekwini as we implement the district development model, which enables all key role players as in government, business, labour and community-based organisations to work together,” he said.
The president has for some time been bemoaning the state of municipalities, highlighting a range of issues affecting them, including leadership problems, corruption, mismanagement of funds and revenue collection capacity and its lack thereof.
“Our local government has been beset by a number of problems, a variety of problems that have impacted on leadership,” he once bemoaned.
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