DEAR Editor:
The Office of the Premier, the Department of Cooperative Government, and provincial Treasury undertook a joint assessment of the state of municipalities after the 2019 elections.
The assessments took place from June 11-19 this year, and the process culminated with reports that identify the interventions, support programmess and investments that will be implemented to improve stability, governance, financial viability and service delivery.
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Councillors were presented with a summary of the findings of the assessments on Friday, October 4 by Cogta’s specialist on local government. What was very worrying is that the outcome of the exercise, namely the plan, was withheld from councillors by management of the municipality. They intend to amend it prior to its release.
It beggars belief that the officials should find it necessary to once again prevent access to information that councillors must digest and put into practice.
It is however the new order in Umdoni for information to be withheld from councillors. We witnessed this new trend with the amending of council’s standing rules to close its committee meetings to the public and press, despite the illegality of the amendment.
It is perplexing why provincial authorities have seen fit to look the other way and did not mention it in their analysis. It does little to inspire confidence when transparency is trashed and simultaneously efforts are made to improve governance and the delivery of services.
What we have in Umdoni is an administration that dictates to council, and council’s oversight function is heavily compromised.
It is a formula that cannot work and will lay waste any plans to bring about much needed changes.
The assessments did not include any surveys amongst the citizens of Umdoni, who are the customers to whom the municipality must render services.
I am inclined to say that the approach was therefore defective, but the initiative is nevertheless welcomed.
It was stated that time and resource constraints did not permit broader consultation with communities.
The findings have identified some key weaknesses that contribute to poor service delivery, but unfortunately shy away from the root causes of cadre deployment and SCM malpractices.
These two key issues have deep political implications and are subsequently not dealt with in a frank and honest way.
The absence of oversight in the SCM processes and the deployment of biased officials, are a toxic mix that can only result in inefficiencies and corruption.
Nevertheless, the assessments and plans are a welcomed initiative. Anything that aims to improve service delivery must be supported.
We will play a constructive role in making them succeed. It is going to take a concerted effort by all political parties to find common ground and work towards improving the performance of our institution.
COUNCILLOR EDDIE BAPTIE
DA caucus leader
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