Radical collaboration sparks hope for Makana’s development

Five years ago, the high court ordered Makana municipality in the Eastern Cape to be placed under administration for violating its constitutional mandate by failing to provide basic services to the community.

Civil society organisations had accused the municipality of corruption, failure to provide water and sewerage services, and serious neglect of municipal infrastructure.

At the time, the municipality and the communities it served were so highly polarised that they resembled a circular firing squad: everyone wanted change but there was no agreement on what to change, or how.

The absence of stakeholder unity and a shared purpose created a disabling environment, hindering progress and local development.

This was the situation that confronted Kagiso Trust, one of South Africa’s leading development agencies, when it set out to heal divisions in Makana and inspire what it now calls “radical collaboration” as an alternative to dysfunction and division.

The trust had worked in local government for many years, but its focus was solely on building capacity within municipalities. The challenges in Makana needed a different approach, so it supported the formation of a different type of ring-shaped formation: the Makhanda Circle of Unity.

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The idea was to create a more enabling environment by giving citizens the opportunity to codesign the future they desired while encouraging the municipality to adopt a more transparent stance. The Circle of Unity advocates an inclusive and purposeful approach to the socioeconomic development of Makhanda and surrounds.

It brings together all relevant and interested voices in a spirit of problem-solving, partnership and civic participation. The central idea is that collaboration is the key catalyst for change.

Collaboration, instead of confrontation

Five years on, Makana is far from an outright success story. But there is sufficient evidence to show that the model of collaborative governance has created an environment more conducive to meaningful development than the confrontational approach that led to court.

That’s why Kagiso Trust has just signed an agreement with the South African Local Government Association (Salga) to scale the model by introducing it elsewhere. The aim is to create accountable municipalities that respond effectively to the needs of citizens and empower communities to participate in local governance.

The memorandum of understanding between the organisations was signed during Salga’s annual seminar on governance and performance management in municipalities.

The setting was significant, because performance management has been absent or poorly implemented in local government for many years.

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Explaining the context of the seminar, Salga said: “Municipal governance and leadership is characterised by poor oversight, limited consequence management, instability at senior management levels, and lack of skills that undermines service delivery.

“Challenges centred on human resources, responsiveness and accountability, economic growth, sound financial management and the legacy of apartheid spatial development continue to hamper municipal performance.”

Mentioning unethical behaviour, systematic corruption, dysfunctional coalitions and insufficient revenue streams and collection as additional challenges to the “developmental local government ideal”, Salga said new approaches are required.

Building competence

The umbrella body for South Africa’s 256 municipalities was a keen observer as Kagiso Trust piloted the collaborative governance model in Makana, so it understands this is not a quick fix.

Collaboration requires equally competent partners, so one of the first steps is to build competence at municipalities, and that starts with leadership development. In that regard, the Circle of Unity has facilitated several retreats with the mayoral committee and senior municipal managers, and it has seen a gradual shift in behaviours and attitudes.

At a recent engagement, the speaker, mayor and municipal manager committed themselves to deeper collaboration and greater transparency with the community. This shows that by building relationships, trust is created.

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Other key strategies in Makana have included a system of distributive leadership within the Circle of Unity, which thrives on the diverse expertise of its members rather than relying on formal leadership positions; an apolitical stance that allows it to cultivate effective supportive partnerships with the municipality based on shared goals rather than partisan interests; and an emphasis on the importance of civic education and cohesion to support an active citizenry, which can then wield significant influence in communities and cultivate a shared sense of purpose.

Having signed an agreement with Salga, the trust hopes to use the relationship to advocate across the country for deeper collaborations between communities and municipalities.

And it wants to encourage communities to take up their responsibilities in the development process. The trust intends to develop tool kits to guide municipalities to introduce the model.

What the trust has found in Makhanda is that none of us has all the answers, but collectively we probably do. In partnership with Salga the trust has the opportunity to improve the capabilities and performance of municipalities and provide citizens with the efficient, effective local governance they need.