The effectiveness of the process of placing struggling municipalities under administration, through Section 139 of the Constitution, came under serious scrutiny during a workshop of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) and the South African Local Government Association (Salga), with delegates arguing that there was no evidence where this process yielded positive results.
NCOP delegates and Salga councillors agreed, during the workshop in Cape Town, that putting a municipality under administration or disbanding should be the last resort after everything has failed to rescue the institution.
NCOP House Chairperson, International Relations and Members Support, Ms Masefako Dikgale who facilitated the two-day workshop, welcomed the proposal that Section 139 interventions must be avoided at all costs.
“If we apply all the policies properly and implement recommendations by the Auditor-General, our municipalities can get their houses in order and interventions will not be necessary,” she said.
Councillor Nhlakanipho Zuma, a Mpumalanga Salga representative, said “over the years we have had a lot of Section 139 interventions but we are yet to see a single municipality that went through that and came out better, instead a majority return to same situation or become worse after the intervention”.
Councillor Stella Lebogang Mondlane from the North West province asked what tool was there to check the effectiveness of Section 139 interventions in municipalities.
“How effective is the intervention, what tool is there to check if Section 139 is effective? In most instances when the administrator leaves the municipality, the problem always comes back,” she said.
A Salga representative from Gauteng, Councillor Mapiti Matsena, also supported the view that the Section 139 intervention must be avoided where possible.
“Before we go to Section 139, we need to look at Section 154 – and if we realise that the way the municipality is run might lead to Section 139, we put measures in place to support it before the situation gets worse.
“It should not be easy to go for Section 139, we must satisfy ourselves that the all the support has failed in terms of Section 154 and when we are convinced that the level of support does not yield any result, then we can go for Section 139.
Others said the reason intervention never worked was because it was an attempt to resolve political matters through legal means.
The Chairperson of the Select Committee on Finance, Mr Charel de Beer, also supported the call that interventions should be the last resort, if not avoided at all.
“We need to put all measures to avoid interventions, if we ensure compliance with legislation, refer to the Auditor-General reports as diagnosis analysis, and the Auditor-General’s findings become the action plan of what the institution must do to improve performance, we can prevent most of this intervention in our municipalities,” said Mr De Beer.
Another area that the workshop delegates agreed needed improvement was the coordination between the spheres of government, the participation of national and provincial government in the development of municipal Integrated Development Plans (IDPs).
Secretary to the NCOP, Adv Modibedi Phindela, said the Constitution did not intend for intervention to be a permanent measure.
“Intervention is not meant to be a permanent measure. It is a temporary solution to assist the municipality to return to normal function. The duration of an intervention depends on whether the municipality returns to normality,” said Adv Phindela.
He told the workshop that the NCOP does not intervene but was invited to play a role on whether intervention is within the Constitution.
We need to start with Section 154 and if doesn’t succeed, we can proceed to Section 139 – dissolution of a municipality must come as a last resort after we have taken all other steps to bring it to normality,” he added.
Councillor Renias Khumalo said Section 139 intervention is part of the support in terms of the inter-governmental relations, but must be the last step when everything has failed.
“One municipality was placed twice under Section 139 and it has still not recovered. In most cases where intervention has taken place, municipalities moved from bad to worse,” he said.
When there is a notice for intervention, the NCOP goes to the municipality, invites all parties (Members of Executive Committees, councillors and organised labour) involved to listen to the reason for intervention. It also checks if all the requirements are met both administratively and constitutionally before making a recommendation.
Section 139 (1) of the Constitution says that “when a municipality cannot fulfill its executive obligation in terms of the legislation, the relevant provincial executive may intervene by taking any appropriate steps to ensure the fulfillment of that obligation.
The workshop was attended by Salga NEC (National Executive Committee) members as its provincial representatives.
By Sakhile Mokoena
4 October 2017
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