The Report highlights systemic service delivery lapses within local municipalities in the Northern Cape Province. Further, the Report reveals that municipalities in the Northern Cape Province are blighted by several challenges, such as poor financial governance, insufficient capacity, acute skills shortages, weak revenue bases, inadequate planning and lack of environmental rehabilitation. The Report documents how several municipalities are failing to communicate effectively and meaningfully with communities leading to community frustration. The Report also highlights that provincial oversight over municipalities in the Northern Cape Province has not been sufficient to arrest deep-seated municipal dysfunction.

Furthermore, the Report reveals a recurring pattern of expenditure directed towards short-term, stop-gap measures rather than towards addressing the underlying causes of service delivery failures. For instance, several municipalities have relied on water tankering as a substitute for functional water infrastructure at exorbitant costs. The Report also highlights that despite being strategic actors, district municipalities in the Northern Cape constitute an under-utilised institutional layer within the system of local government.

The Report contains several recommendations which are directed at local municipalities, district municipalities, provincial government, national departments, oversight institutions, and other key stakeholders. Some of the recommendations include among others:

• The need for all local municipalities in the Northern Cape Province to among others, take immediate steps to address unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure in accordance with section 32 of the Municipal Finance Management Act; develop interim plans and measures to address service delivery deficiencies and infrastructure failures; and engage with Eskom to explore the development of cooperative agreements in municipal areas where Eskom supplies electricity services.
• All district municipalities to review their support to local municipalities to foster cooperation and institutional stability with the local sphere of government.
• National Treasury to investigate alternative support mechanisms that strengthen municipal financial sustainability without increasing the risk of mismanagement, such as the direct payment of statutory or quasi-statutory obligations (such as Auditor-General and SALGA fees) on behalf of municipalities, rather than transferring equivalent funds directly into municipal accounts.
• The Northern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs working in coordination with the National Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs to explore formal interventions in terms of section 139 of the Constitution in several municipalities in the Northern Cape Province including administrative intervention or, and only where warranted by extreme circumstances, the dissolution of municipal councils.
• The Member of the Executive Council responsible for the Northern Cape Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs to consider exercising powers afforded to him in terms of section 106(1) of the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act 32 of 2000 in the Kai !Garib Local Municipality in respect of the allegations of fraud within the Municipality.
• The Premier of the Northern Cape Province to declare a provincial state of disaster in terms of section 41 of the Disaster Management Act, in respect of the sewage spillages and associated sanitation failures in Sol Plaatjie Local Municipality.

The SAHRC is extremely concerned by the state of the local government in the country. Several reports of the SAHRC in various provinces such as  Limpopo, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu Natal, Gauteng, Free State and North West indicate that despite the local sphere of government being central to human rights attainment, it is severely constrained. Going forward, the SAHRC will be strengthening its monitoring of the recommendations in its reports. To foster accountability, transparency and answerability, the SAHRC will not hesitate to publicly name those institutions that fail to adhere to its recommendations.

The full Report can be accessed on the link below:

Ends

Issued by the South African Human Rights Commission