Councillors not scapegoats

A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away, editorial writers were required to understand their topics.

“Get the subject thoroughly pinned down – know what you are talking about,” wrote former editor Harry O’ Connor in a 1975 manual published by South African Associated Newspapers (Saan).

Subject knowledge has since been dropped as a requirement for leader writers on the Sunday Times, which was a Saan flagship.

Here’s an example from Sunday’s edition: “… what is so complicated when councillors are merely asked to ensure garbage is collected, clean water is delivered to our homes, potholes aren’t allowed to degenerate into dongas and traffic lights don’t malfunction when it rains? Is that too much to ask of our esteemed councillors in 2021?”

Yes, it is too much to “merely” ask. And wrong to heap gross municipal dysfunctionality on councillors’ constrained shoulders.

Councillors do their best to help ensure service delivery, but it is not their responsibility. Nothing in law says they are responsible.

Yet schedule one of the Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 precludes ward councillors from giving instructions to officials, or interfering in the management of any municipal department.

This is the crux. Ward councillors have no executive authority. They may not tell officials what to do.

Councillors are routinely blamed for municipal failings. It is an ill-informed view. Several articles have been published in recent years explaining a councillor’s role.

Long-serving councillor David Potter explained in Daily Maverick (2 November, 2020): “Ward councillors are not actually responsible for the implementation or fulfilment of service delivery.

“Ward councillors have a role of oversight to ensure that the city delivers on requests logged. Ward councillors are chasers. Day in, day out, night in, night out.”

Each of Johannesburg’s seven regions has an “integrated service delivery” (ISD) manager, reporting to a regional deputy director. These deputies report to a citywide ISD group head.

These folk, among others, are responsible for service delivery.

A lecturer at the University of Johannesburg, where I completed a Higher Certificate in Municipal Governance in 2017, insisted city managers are responsible for service delivery.

On paper, maybe. In practice, it’s difficult to hold accountable a city manager who does not respond to any communication.

Mayors, members of mayoral committees, city managers, senior officials in municipal entities and departments have executive authority. They may tell officials what to do. Some control budgets.

The idea that people should be held accountable is correct. That is what councillors seek to do, day and night.

Hold people accountable – without telling them what to do, or interfering in their work.

We do so by asking politely, following up repeatedly with questions about who has been assigned to a task, when it will be completed, etc.

Municipal government in South Africa is notoriously dysfunctional. One reason must be the in-built diffusion of accountability, where no one takes full responsibility.

We shall not be scapegoats for this mess.

Revise the system. Give ward councillors authority and budgetary discretion. Then hold us accountable.

Martin Williams, DA councillor and former editor of The Citizen.

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