National Council of Provinces Chairperson (NCOP) Amos Masondo, said the forum is currently assessing outstanding projects from the sixth administration so as to lay a firm foundation for the seventh administration to hit the ground running after the general elections next year.

He said the forum seeks to synergise the work of both the national and provincial legislatures to ensure collaboration and coordination within the sector.

Masondo is co-chairing the meeting with the Speaker of the National Assembly (NA), Nosiviwe Mapisa-Ngqakula, who urged the 10 legislatures to have a common voice on the country’s position on current geopolitical dynamics in their respective international multilateral engagements. 

She said the discussions and commitments of the legislative sector may have serious implications on the country’s diplomatic policies and posture.

As part of strengthening the sector’s impact, the forum resolved to officially register the Legislative Employer’s Organisation to facilitate a collective bargaining process for the sector, and to ensure uniformity in the conditions of employment and service.

Also addressing the session, Mapisa-Ngqakula said the sector needs to accelerate the execution of the key projects to enable the 6th Parliament to conclude on a high note while setting a higher bar as a new foundation for the seventh Parliament.

The forum also engaged the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) to explore modalities concerning the possibility of reconfiguring the seat allocation within legislatures. 

A similar exercise was last performed in 1999 and needs reconfiguration considering the growth of population and other factors.

The Speakers’ Forum meets quarterly to concretise numerous measures aimed at heightening cooperation, coordination, and alignment of work across the country’s 10 legislatures as well as at local government level. 

Speakers and deputy Speakers of the nine provincial legislatures are members of the National Speakers’ Forum, while the Provincial Speakers’ Forums that include local governments get convened by Provincial Legislature Speakers.

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The President will visit Port St Johns from 3pm.

The OR Tambo District Municipality in the Eastern Cape Province has been affected by torrential rainfall over the past week, which caused flooding resulting in loss of life, displacement of communities and damage to infrastructure.

“President Cyril Ramaphosa will be accompanied by Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Ms Thembi Nkadimeng and Eastern Cape Premier Lubabalo Oscar Mabuyane to interact with residents and other stakeholders, and to assess current response and recovery efforts, and further actions or resources needed to help communities ravaged,” spokesperson Vincent Magwenya said.

Severe weather for which the South African Weather Service had issued early warnings on 22 and 23 March affected communities in Port St Johns, Ingquza Hill, Nyandeni and King Sabata Dalindyebo Local Municipalities,

The floods disrupted critical infrastructure and services to water and electricity supply services, teaching and learning, as well as roads and bridges that collapsed.

More than 500 people have been displaced, according to OR Tambo District Municipality spokesperson Zimkhitha Macingwane.

Government has activated a working Special Intergovernmental Committee on Disaster Management to provide support and relief to the affected communities.

Teams comprising national, provincial and local spheres of government have been assessing the damage and providing emergency support in the form of shelter, food, blankets and other essentials.

On arrival, the President will visit the Port St Johns Youth Centre, which is housing residents who have lost homes in the floods.

The President and his delegation will then proceed to damaged roads in the Mthumbane area, close to Port St Johns’ Second Beach.

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A high court in South Africa has passed a landmark ruling with far-reaching implications for municipalities that fail to carry out their constitutional duty to citizens.

The Makhanda High Court granted an application by the Unemployed People’s Movement that the Makana Local Municipality be dissolved.

The court ordered that the Eastern Cape provincial government, under which the municipality falls, appoint an administrator to run its affairs. It will be the second time this has happened.

In 2014 the city was placed under administration for three months. This was because it was financially vulnerable, wasn’t maintaining infrastructure and service delivery had crumbled. At one point residents went without water for nine days.

That intervention failed to fix the problems.

Last year citizens turned to the judiciary, signalling that they were no longer willing to give government a chance to fix the problem. They are hoping that the judiciary can help solve the crisis of governance.

South Africa’s Constitution stipulates that local government must ensure the provision of services to communities in a sustainable way, promote a safe and healthy environment and encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations.

Municipalities are the third tier of government after provinces and the national government. This tier is also the closest level to ordinary citizens, and as such, forms the basis of the relationship between government and citizens.

Judge Igna Stretch said in her judgment that the conduct of the Makana municipality had been

inconsistent with the 1996 Constitution of the Republic of South Africa … [by] failing to promote a healthy and sustainable environment for the community.

The ruling is a victory for activists who have been embroiled in a long-running battle against the dysfunctional and incompetent municipal council run by the African National Congress (ANC). The party governs the country and most municipalities.

This is the first time in South Africa’s democratic history that citizens have been able to argue successfully in court that local government is not living up to its constitutional obligations.

The ruling effectively opens the door for others to challenge poor service delivery due to incompetent and dysfunctional governance.

The precedent-setting ruling is set to cause jitters in municipalities around the country. It might see more municipalities being challenged in court. It signals that when internal structures of accountability are dysfunctional the courts can provide recourse for citizens.

It could have broader implications too. South Africans will elect new local councils next year.

The court’s ruling fundamentally undermines the ANC’s electoral claim that it’s creating a “better life.” It signals that the party effectively failed at fulfilling the constitutional mandate given to it by the electorate.

Decades of decline

The current crisis in Makana has been in the making for almost a decade. The seriousness of the situation surfaced in 2011 when it became apparent that the municipality had cash-flow problems. By 2013 there were clear signs that it was in distress.

In 2014 the municipality was put under administration for a period of three months. This meant that an administrator, and not municipal executives, would oversee its day-to-day business.

Despite this, the situation never improved. Financial vulnerability, failure to maintain critical infrastructure, and a dysfunctional billing system continued. The delivery of basic services, such as clean water, gradually ground to a complete halt:

“The city’s decrepit water and sewerage infrastructure has resulted in massive leaks of both fresh treated water, and sewage flowing down suburban roads and past schools.

Uncollected rubbish decomposes in piles on every street in Grahamstown east and informal rubbish dumps have multiplied across the city.

The roads are potholed; cattle, donkeys and other stray animals wander unchecked in roads, including national and regional roads such as the N2 which circumnavigate the city.”

The council is barely able to spend 2% of its budget on maintaining critical infrastructure. And amid a major water drought, the council effectively “chased away” NGOs willing to help by not paying them.

The Makana municipality has been unable to address the decline in governance, financial mismanagement, as well as rampant corruption.

Makana is not unique. Only 18 of the country’s 257 municipalities received a clean audit from the Auditor-General in 2017/18.

The South African Local Government Association is increasingly concerned about the parlous state of financial management and performance by municipalities.

The root cause of this collapse is that governance systems are built on patronage, rather than the principles of good governance.

Appointments are political rather than based on merit, and executive and municipal positions become collateral for political support.

Systems left unfixed

In 2015 a forensic investigation report detailed corruption and maladministration, implicating senior officials and then executive mayor of Makana Municipality, Zamuxolo Peter.

But those implicated have not been held to account.

The national ANC leadership attempted some intervention, replacing the Executive Mayor, but it left an ineffective municipal council in place.

Makana provides a good example of how patronage in a party-dominant political system undermines good governance. This hampers the ability of municipalities to fulfil their constitutional mandate of delivering services for citizens’ benefit.

The ANC is very aware of this problem. Yet, it is incapable of addressing it.

Party’s poor response

The Eastern Cape government has said that it intends to appeal the groundbreaking Makana court ruling, claiming it violates the principle of separation of powers.

The decision is clearly driven by the ANC which runs the province and is concerned that the ruling will be used against it ahead of the local government elections.

The decision to “test the judgment to its fullest” will effectively see the provincial government seeking ways to overturn a ruling that holds politicians accountable for their governance failures.

Instead of rooting out a culture of patronage and lack of accountability in the municipalities it governs, the ANC would rather turn the issue into one of alleged judicial overreach.

Unless it changes, its ongoing electoral decline may turn into a spectacular fall come the 2021 elections.

Joleen Steyn Kotze, Senior Research Specialist in Democracy, Governance and Service Delivery at the Human Science Research Council and a Research Fellow Centre for African Studies, University of the Free State

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Makana Council in the Eastern Cape is meeting Friday to discuss their response after a landmark High Court ruling Tuesday, ordering the municipality to be dissolved and put under administration.

In the first judgment of its kind in South Africa, the Eastern Cape’s Provincial Executive has been ordered to dissolve Makana Municipality and appoint an administrator until a new council is elected.

The mayor and municipal manager, in their personal capacities, face a punitive cost order, along with various national and provincial government entities.

Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane said the application of the judgment would be suspended until the provincial government had decided how to respond to it.

“The judgment has far reaching implications and the Eastern Cape Provincial government is considering appealing the judgment,” Mabuyane told local paper Grocotts Mail.

“Therefore, the application of the judgment, or its effect, will be suspended until such time as a final decision is taken in this regard.”

Civic groups who launched the legal action called on the government to accept and act on the judgment.

“Council has not yet met and only council can make a decision about our response,” responded Makana Mayor Mzukisi Mpahlwa, Grocott’s Mail reported.

He said a recommendation to councillors would come out of Friday’s meeting.

The applicants, the Unemployed People’s Movement (UPM) and the Grahamstown Residents Association (GRA), said the judgement is part of the “democratic process.”

“It [would be] an indictment on the part of the government to oppose the will of the people. It would indeed be a dark moment for our city and our country,” the UPM’s Ayanda Kota said.

“People were united across the spectrum against the political elite of the city… it’s democracy… we hope they will accept that it’s part of the democratic process… they must take their things and go home.”

In a statement issued, GRA chairperson Philip Machanick said: “I see reports that ANC structures are calling for the judgment to be appealed because of the precedent it sets. I propose a different precedent for the government: start governing. That is all we ask.

Judge Igna Stretch’s two-page order said Makana had failed to provide services to the community in a sustainable manner, promote a safe and healthy environment, structure and manage its administration, budgeting and planning processes, prioritise the community’s needs and promote its social and economic development.

“Civil society has refused to accept this as normal; the extremely diverse constituencies who have stood up for positive change attest to that. We are not the opposition: we are the people government is meant to serve.“

“The GRA calls on government to accept this judgment as a wake-up call and stop resisting the inevitable – a comprehensive intervention to turn things around,” Machanick said.

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Ten people arrested in connection with corruption, fraud and money laundering charges relating to a multimillion-rand toilet project at the Amathole District Municipality are due in the East London Magistrate’s Court Friday.

“The operation follows a complaint by the national Treasury after it transpired that the suspects allegedly colluded in accessing the Amathole District Municipality funds through the flaunting of procurement processes. Afterwards, they were awarded a contract for ventilated, improved toilets in the Eastern Cape,” Hawks spokesperson Colonel Katlego Mogale said in a statement.

Mogale added: “The Hawks’ preliminary investigation discovered that over R600m was to be awarded for the contract, of which R286m [ was already] paid to the suspects.”

The arrests were made after a multi-disciplinary team, which included Crime Intelligence and SA Police Service detectives, conducted several raids across the country, including in the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal.

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Humanitarian agency, Gift of the Givers, is en route to deliver emergency fodder to drought stricken Graaff-Reinet in the Eastern Cape.

The KZN-based disaster relief foundation is expected to deliver eight truckloads of fodder to farmers in Graaff-Reinet Tuesday, following a request from emerging and commercial farmers.

The humanitarian organisation sent teams to the Dr Beyers Naudé municipality in the Eastern Cape at the beginning of October where the main water-supplying dam has run dry.

The municipality has been relying on 28 boreholes to service 3 392 households and a population of 37 670 permanent residents, News24 reported.

Gift of the Givers has already committed to three superlinks laden with water, three water tankers, a drilling machine, and has sent its renowned hydrologist, Dr Gideon Groenewald, to the area.

Groenewald will oversee the drilling of eight boreholes, with the first five boreholes already yielding about 102 000L per day, collectively.

“Too little water reaches the main storage tanks in the lower-lying areas to automatically let the booster pumps kick in to pump water to the higher reservoirs, resulting in water always being available in the lower part of the town but leaving people on higher ground completely dry,” Gift of the Givers founder Dr Imtiaz Sooliman said.

Most people living on higher ground are disadvantaged, he adds.

“The solution lies in developing existing or new boreholes; managing known aquifers; supplying water at a rate that exceeds water use in low-lying areas; allowing pumping systems to run effectively and fill high-lying reservoirs as a matter of urgency; and drill boreholes directly in high-lying areas if the geography allows that.”

In addition to fodder, bottled water, water tankers and nutritional supplies for children will also be delivered to the area.

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