Municipal structures Act amended in Tshwane

Should the Democratic Alliance-led coalition government remain in power in Tshwane after the local government elections, it will have to establish ward committees in terms of a recent change to the Municipal Structures Act.

While the DA’s administration comes to an end when the country votes on Monday, the DA-led coalition government has run the city without ward committees since 2016.

Ward committees are a mechanism in local government to link councillors and communities.

According to the department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs, ward committees ensure citizens give input in decisions that local councils make.

But the University of Mpumalanga’s Dr John Molepo said the Municipal Structures Act had made ward committees optional.

“In the old law, it said ‘may’. It provided a timeframe of 120 days to establish a ward committee, as ward committees serve as the eyes and ears of the people in the community,” he said.

ALSO READ: Hawks probing dodgy Tshwane fuel tender linked to Malema, EFF – report

Tshwane had, however, established draft ward committee bylaws which were put out for public participation. Nominations for ward committees by stakeholders and community members were conducted between January and February 2018, said council speaker Katlego Mathebe.

“Elections of ward committees were deferred at the nomination validation process due to technical problems found within the bylaw.”

After consultation with external legal counsel on amending the bylaw discrepancies, the task team in the City of Tshwane met in August this year to refine the draft ward committee bylaw, she said.

“In compliance with the approved council report on 26 August, the office of the speaker will commence with the public participation process once the new political administration has taken office,” she said.

Without the municipal bylaws, Mathebe said the city instead linked to communities through ward-based/regional community meetings and virtual meetings post-Covid.

“There has also been legislated quarterly community feedback meetings by councillors with communities,” she said.

ALSO READ: Tshwane metro to bill Samwu for damages after workers go on illegal strike

But the Municipal Structures Act has been amended and was assented to by President Cyril Ramaphosa in June and would come into effect from Monday.

This meant that establishing ward committees would now be compulsory Section 28 of the Act now says that a metropolitan or local council “must” establish a ward committee for each ward in the municipality within 120 days after the election of the council.

Tshwane’s issue was, however, the governance coalition, which had led to several disagreements in council meetings.

Molepo said: “They failed to even agree on the budget and many other things. The DA came into power and citizens are now complaining about service delivery because of this coalition agreement. Now they are forced to
[establish ward committees after elections].”

– rorisangk@citzien.co.za