Mbeki was correct, but the mistake ANC committed is being rectified – Maile

The Gauteng Member of the Executive Council (MEC) of Finance and Economic Development Lebogang Maile says although former president Thabo Mbeki was correct in his assessments of municipalities, the problems were being addressed.

The Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs (TM-School) at Unisa hosted its engagement event, “Conversation with Mbeki”, on Wednesday, at the Unisa Muckleneuk Campus, where Mbeki addressed issues of dysfunctional municipalities, among others.

Auditor General (AG) Tsakane Maluleke tabled municipal audit outcomes last week, where she revealed that only 34 of 257 municipalities achieved clean audits in the 2022/23 financial year.

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According to the AG, most municipalities still did not comply with procurement legislation on expenditure management, procurement and contract management, submission of annual financial statements and consequence management. This has resulted in unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure.

South Africa’s municipalities are struggling financially, the audit revealed.

Mbeki on municipalities: ‘We made a mistake’

The former president told the audience at Unisa that the issues at municipalities started after 1994, when the African National Congress (ANC) sent its best cadres to the national and provincial governments.

“What happened in 1994, you took your best cadres and sent them to national government, your next layer, provincial, then local government,” said Mbeki.

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“We should have reversed that. Your best cadres should have been at local government, because that’s the one that’s closest to the people and where development takes place or doesn’t take place. At some point we realised that and said you know, we made a mistake.

“The 2021 local government elections, the ANC decided that it will set up national structures to participate in the selection of mayors to address the leadership issue. The political leadership at municipalities is a serious problem; and from that flows all manner of things. Why are these municipalities getting negative AG reports?”

Maile: ‘We corrected that’

On Thursday, Maile said although the former president’s assessment was correct, the issues at municipalities were deeper than qualifications.

The ANC was also correcting the mistakes of the past, he said.

“He [Mbeki] didn’t say we don’t have good cadres at local government. If you were to take ANC mayors, the City of Joburg mayor has a master’s degree and a history in governance. If we were to put a barometer of a good deployed person, I think he fits the bill,” said Maile.

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“I don’t know of any mayor who has been deployed by the ANC who doesn’t have matric. This shows that the mistake the ANC committed is being rectified. The premier has a master’s too.

“We have taken this task seriously. I agree Mbeki was correct with the assertion he was making, and that’s why recently we have now introduced requirements that people must be qualified, not just with political activism and history, but also other skills that you must be able to bring. We have a lot of good people in municipalities.

“The problem however is more complex than that, there is a combination of factors.”

‘Service delivery’

Maile welcomed said municipalities were struggling with achieving targets, which affected the adequacy of basic services delivered to communities.

“We are seeing lack of service delivery in black communities. This concerns us. Go to Atteridgeville, Mamelodi and a lot of townships, there is regression in terms of service delivery. We have not hidden our disappointment with that,” said Maile.

“This is why are unfortunately forced to now do things that ordinarily we’re not supposed to do because it is not our competence in terms of the constitution. Like cleaning and picking waster, not just in Tshwane, everywhere in the province, because as a provincial government we understand the importance and central role that Gauteng plays in the continent and economy.”

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Maile said the provincial government has invested more money in the fight against crime, “despite the fact that policing is not a provincial competence, but if there is crime, it affects all of us. It also impacts negatively on the economy”.

Maile called for greater urgency from accounting officers, mayors and members of mayoral committees to address service delivery challenges.