While the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs says it appreciates the South African Local Government Association’s (Salga’s) role in supporting municipalities, it disagrees with Salga's “feeling of helplessness” at having “no executive authority over the municipalities.”

Salga wielded a considerable influence over municipalities and should use this influence to champion a turnaround in the performance of municipalities, deepening accountability and improving audit outcomes, said chairperson of the committee, Dr Zweli Mkhize.

The portfolio committee said Salga must be instrumental in providing training and capacity-building to elected officials that would enable them to execute their oversight duties effectively and stressed that it needed to be more assertive with municipalities.

The committee expressed concerns about the high turnover rate of municipal councillors after local elections, which Mkhize said resulted in the loss of institutional memory and eroded capacity in municipalities.

Similarly, he noted the educational level of elected councillors as being important as municipalities presided over multi-billion-rand budgets.

“We believe Salga has a role to play in helping uphold specific standards in municipalities by creating a set of standards and motivating all municipalities to operate at an acceptable level of efficiency in their functioning,” Mkhize said.

The committee reminded Salga that while it could force compliance from municipalities that do not uphold set standards, it could provide them with the necessary support to improve.

Mkhize stressed that the constitutional rights of voters to pick their local representatives was important but said it needed to be balanced with the need to create a capable body of leaders.

“It needs to be appreciated that the performance of municipalities in delivering services depends on the capacity of the elected public representatives and the legitimacy and confidence that communities have in these elected leaders,” said Mkhize.

The chairperson said the onus was also on political parties to take responsibility for the ethical conduct and performance of their deployees.

The portfolio committee welcomed several recommendations by Salga to eliminate instability, particularly in hung municipalities governed by coalitions.

The committee also supports the recommendation that municipalities consider using the executive committee system instead of the executive mayoral committee system to ensure inclusivity and stability, as has been the practice in KwaZulu-Natal.

“…this would go a long way to promoting tolerance and consensus-building in coalition government now that hung municipalities are becoming a growing feature in local government,” Mkhize said.