Publications
- Pemmy Majodina called on South Africans to continue supporting the ruling party.
- She said the ANC recognised the need for strong and effective local government.
- Majodina added that strides had been made to transform municipalities.
ANC parliamentary chief whip Pemmy Majodina says the party is confident South Africans will express their "overwhelming support for their liberation movement, which has transformed the country from the ruins of colonial apartheid".
With less than three weeks before the municipal elections, the ANC is deploying its heavyweights to campaign across the country in a bid to remain in power in most of the country's local municipalities.
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In a statement on Sunday, Majodina said the ANC recognised the need for strong and effective local government.
"The ANC is confident that the people will once again express their overwhelming support for their liberation movement, which has transformed this country from the ruins of colonial apartheid to a non-racial, non-sexist and a democratic society," she said.
Majodina said, given the significant disparities between local areas and regions, a strong central government is required to address the legacy of apartheid.
"Strong local government should be complemented by a provincial government whose primary tasks will be to ensure integrated and coordinated local development planning, the provision of appropriate regional services and to provide support to those local authorities which lack resources, particularly in the rural areas," she said.
A report submitted by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to Parliament's local government portfolio committee in August 2021 indicated that a further 111 local municipalities were classified as being at medium risk of deteriorating further. Only 16 were rated as stable.
The ANC governs most of those classified as unstable.
Majodina said the ANC, in Parliament, had managed to strengthen legislation in order to transform municipalities and to deal with shortfalls.
"This includes the amendment of the Municipal Structures Act 3 in 2021 to provide for, among other things, the prohibition of a councillor, who was found guilty of a breach of a code of conduct for councillors for a period of two years.
"We have also recently promulgated the Traditional Khoi and San Leadership Act of 2019, which allows for the representation of traditional leadership in municipal councils. These additions and amendments to pieces of legislation sharpen our ability to pursue the fundamental transformation of local government and further provide the impetus for development that is tailored specifically for our local communities," she said.
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Majodina said the Auditor-General's report into municipalities had revealed several shortcomings and the extent of corruption.
"We also admit that the transformative project we have embarked upon has not been as linear as some of our critics would like society to believe. It has been complex and characterised by shortcomings that we learn from.
"The Auditor General's Municipal Finance Management reports have pointed to many municipalities still failing to adhere to the promulgated legislation, such as the Municipal Systems Act of 2000.
"This has directly led to challenges in service delivery and under-development. The ANC in Parliament is alive to these challenges and has already identified hotspot municipalities, [and] we have been intervening, using constitutionally available mechanisms. These also include invoking section 139 of the Constitution to place municipalities under administration," she said.
