‘Vigilant communities essential to hold municipalities accountable’

Communities need to be active and be vigilant in order to hold their municipalities accountable, the National Employers’ Association of South Africa (NEASA) said.

According to Gerhard Papenfus, Chief Executive of NEASA, the treasury’s cost containment measures for municipalities will go a long way to return this tier of government to functionality.

However, NEASA said communities will have a critical role to play to hold municipalities accountable and ensure implementation of these cost cutting measures.

“Treasury is forcing municipalities to publish their cost cutting measures on their individual websites and failure to adhere could have serious consequences,” Papenfus said.

“All these measures by Treasury have been implemented to hold municipalities accountable. However, it is only the local community, in particular the business community, which is capable of demanding accountability.”

He added last month, national treasury gazetted far-reaching cost-containment measures for municipalities. It forms part of cost-cutting measures by the state as it seeks to improve its balance sheet.

Papenfus said the Auditor General has painted a grim picture of financial mismanagement in the country’s 257 municipalities, with accountability deteriorating at an alarming rate.

He added that the introduction of the cost containment measures is a sign of the desperate state of these government entities.

“Businesses and individuals must become involved on a regular, organised and diligent basis; cost containment plans on municipal websites must be evaluated and municipal performances must be vigilantly monitored; poor performance and non-compliance must not be tolerated; and where municipalities don’t respond positively where and when compliance is demanded, the Treasury has to be called upon to resolve the issue,” he said.

Papenfus said without a vigilant community, the old destructive habits will continue and the country will only have itself to blame.