Joburg’s budget process: A ‘mockery’ of public participation and democracy

Today we are in council, debating the City of Joburg’s 2024/2025 budget. It’s farcical. What happens is not a debate of well-argued points being aired. No one is open to persuasion.

People talk past each other, exchange insults, then vote along party lines.

This is not what the drafters of South Africa’s constitution had in mind. That hallowed document says the objects of local government include, “to encourage the involvement of communities and community organizations in the matters of local government”.

This led to public participation being included in the Municipal Structures Act of 1998 and the Municipal Systems Act of 2000. The 1998 White Paper on Local Government invoked public participation mechanisms.

These include integrated development plans (IDPs) and ward committees. The White Paper recommended councillors should promote the involvement of citizens in the design and delivery of municipal programmes.

Sounds great. Joburg purports to abide by this, quoting from legislation. But that is not how the city functions.

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According to the latest Joburg documentation, participation in Joburg is supposed to start with community-based planning (CBP) meetings, “where the city finds out what the community’s needs are”.

Information gathered at CBP meetings is “then collated and sent to the city’s departments and entities for them to formulate into a draft document”, the IDP.

The IDP is then tabled in council for “adoption and further public consultation”. After this second round of public input, the draft IDP is finalised, and money is allocated for respective budgets.

Once the IDP and budget are tabled and approved in council, “we all know what has to be done, where it has to be done, and how it will be done, when it will be done, how long it will take and importantly we have the money to do everything”. Ja, ja.

In fairy tales, everyone lives happily ever after. But not in Joburg, where the budget process is mocked, and we certainly don’t have money to do everything.

“Asinamali” (we have no money) is the bleat of every city entity.

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From the beginning of the community-based planning meetings to the passing of the budget, the voices of the people are ignored.

Over the years, I have submitted scores of requests on behalf of residents, mostly without even acknowledgement. In 2021, I raised written questions in council about the CBP/IDP process and was assured it was not a tick-box exercise.

But of course, it is. Officials go through the motions to comply with the SA constitution – not to serve the people, especially not ratepayers whose requests are ignored.

As documented in a Caxton local newspaper last month (Region B IDP meeting a disgrace), “officials were not concerned about being unable to clearly hear inputs from the community as they chatted among themselves or played on their phones”.

Boxes ticked. Councillors vote, you pay. The farce moves on.