Honourable Speaker of this House,

Honourable Members of this august house,

Members of the Executive Council present here,

Members of the public in the gallery,

Members of the Media,

It is congruent that, in responding to the motion presented to the House by Honourable Dacre Haddon of the Democratic Alliance; we set the record straight so as to stop further creation of confusion regarding the election of Ward committees in our local and metropolitan municipalities.

The commitment of the ANC led government in ensuring proper election of Ward Committees is exhibited by what we said in our local Government elections manifesto, that: “Local Government and communities face major challenges- reducing unemployment, more access to better quality basic services, overcoming the legacy of apartheid spatial development, strengthening community participation and building effective accountable and clean local government.”

Ward committees are critical in ensuring this as part of building better communities. In resolving issues with regards to the election of these Ward Committees, we will not be forced by the DA to act on an emotional caprice, we will conduct thorough investigations and respond according to our findings.

We harbour no intentions to nullify elected Ward Committees at the drop of a hat. We will work with those who submitted complaints and affected municipalities to resolve the disputes, guided by the relevant laws and policies.

Ward committees are established by means of law and that explains without doubt that they are a statutory component of a municipality. Section 12 of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act allows the MEC to establish municipalities in this province.

The election of Ward Committees derives its legislative outlook from, the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, the 1993 Local Government White Paper, the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act and the Local Government: Municipal Systems Act.

The May 2011 local government elections necessitated the establishment of Ward Committees in 39 muninicipalities of the province, excluding district municipalities as they constitute the third component of the municipality.

Chapter 7 Section 152(1)(e) of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa states that local government should encourage the involvement of communities and community organisations in the matters of local government.

Subsequent to the local government elections, all 36 local municipalities and 2 metropolitan municipalities embarked on the ward committee election process, except the Baviaans municipality which decided not to elect its Ward Committees until the next financial year, citing lack of policy and budget for its operations.

The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro has started its election process but had to stop due to unresolved internal disputes, while the Buffalo City Metro is in the process of completing its election process.

This process was kicked off by the Ward Committee election policy development guidelines sent to all 39 Municipalities by the Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs to help guide municipalities in developing their own idiosyncratic policies.

Only 4 local municipalities are yet to complete the election process, owing to a number of disputes registered with them and brought to the attention of our Department. We must place it on record that, there were other disputes from municipalities such as Ikhwezi which the Department attended and resolved.

The law guiding the establishment of these Committees indicates that they must be elected 3 moths after the local government elections. However, in our province, we were hamstrung by two things. The first being the lack of institutionalised policies in all municipalities to guide this process, the second thing was the fact that some municipalities appear to have acted contrary to the guidelines and the law.

Our responsibility as the Department is to investigate these disputes, take decisions to ensure proper compliance with the law.

We are interacting with Mayors and Speakers of the 4 concerned municipalities where there are still unresolved disputes, these are, King Sabatha Dalindyebo (4 Wards) , Tsolwana (1 Ward), Nkonkobe (3 Wards) and Maletswai (2 Wards) local municipalities.

Where we find evidence of an election process having breached the law or having been contrary to the dictates of the law, we will nullify election of Ward Committees and start the process afresh.

We must also state that, as the Department, we are committed to ensuring that all municipalities have properly elected Ward Committees who will work with the municipalities to help build better communities. Delays in these elections are delays in ensuring proper delivery of services to our people as these Committees are central in the work of municipalities.

A report chronicling the election of Ward Committees in each municipality will be compiled and our Department will then respond to each challenge and recommendation. This includes ensuring that all Municipalities institutionalise the development of Ward Committee Election policy so that that the Council that will come after the next elections will not be delayed by developing policies but will hit the ground running by facilitating election of Ward Committees within the specified time.

All Eastern Cape municipal councils were reminded about their statutory mandate of establishing Ward Committees. Circular number one was circulated to all municipalities advising them about this mandate.

A provincial meeting wherein all municipalities were invited to discuss the Ward Committee election was convened and was co-chaired by our Department and the South African Local Government Association.

Elections of Ward Committees were conducted within various municipalities and reports were asked through a questionnaire developed by the Department.

It was clear from the responses of some municipalities that glitches were experienced in some municipalities. Other municipalities never responded to the questionnaire which made it difficult to have an insight about the outcomes of some Ward Committee elections.

Induction

Two training sessions were conducted focussing on municipal officials, Community Development Workers, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, the South African Local Government Association, the Eastern Cape Department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs, external facilitators, Statistic South Africa and the Development Bank of Southern Africa. The two latter organisations were involved for establishing working relationship with these insttituons, amongst other things.

The Provincial induction schedule was developed and endorsed by all involved institutions. The Department made available the operational budget of R350.000.00 to support municipalities during induction period.

It was clearly stated in all training sessions and in Speakers forums that municipal wards that have queries will not be considered for induction. Our external facilitators were utilised in most municipalities except for Ingquza Hill, Ngqushwa, Lundini, Maletswai, Amahlathi, Matatiele and Mbashe municipalities.

Though these municipalities decided to carry on with their induction all queries were attended to. For instance there was a query lodged at ward 6 of Amahlathi local municipaltiy to which the Department responded by dispatching a team that is working to resolve the query.

The Department had to reverse induction dates of Ikhwezi, Nkonkobe and King Sabatha Dalindyebo municipalities due to unresolved problems. It was categorically stated that Ward Committees with disputes should not be inducted and allowed to commence with their duties until all disputes have been resolved. We must also put it on record that no stipend will be paid to Ward Committee members whose election still have disputes or queries.

Honourable Members, all Municipalities were informed about all these conditions. Other municipalities do not even have their own policy on the establishment of Ward Committees. Speakers of some Councils tend to neglect complaints raised by communities.

Opposition parties must refrain from making challenges that crop out of the election of Ward Committees a political football. They must mature to a point where they play a positive role towards assisting these municipalities to ensure proper elections of these Committees. That’s what leadership is all about.

No wonder the teachers back up and leave… I am teaching at an previously disadvantaged school , where there is not even a feeding scheme, broken windows, really bad conditions… we are feeding these kids out of our pockets, but all the govenment cares about is the black schools, what about the coloured schools? these are just as much in need as those blacks schools..

I teach maths and science, ;- with NO PAY…. why …..because they steal the money and still get a promotion…..

sort out the teaching mess in the Port Elizabeth…. pay the teachers for the work they do, and stop thinking about your own pockets….

just think of it this way…. if it wasnt for teachers like us, you would not have had an education and be where you are today./

The funny thing is that you are not telling your fans the real story here. Your comments about the MEC and the Department are unfortunate and are a clear symptoms of a person seeking public attention.

I comment in my personal capacity but with my municipal infrastructure in mind. Is there any possiility of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality applying for the grant funding? Our projects division in the Electricity & Energy Directorate has had its budget cut from the R100Mil to R150Mil region over the past number of years, down to R7mil this year. It seems that that will be the case for the forseeable future.

We have numerous captial projects which have had to be shelved or halted due to the enormous budget cuts which will certainly impact on industrial expansion opportunities.

Case in point, we have almost completed a new 132/11kV substation in Uitenhage (Nivens Drift substation) and its 132kV bays at the source (San Souci substation), but our funding for the 132kV powerline has now been retracted leaving us with many millions of Rands worth of equipment that cannot be used. I estimate that the line will cost in the region of R40Mil to R50Mil. with current budget levels we will not be able to build that line for the forseeable future without outside funding. This is only one of anumber of similar scenarios.

I would appreciate some direction if it is at all possible to set something in motion regarding application for the grant funding.

Kind Regards
Ian Pattinson

With regards to your concerns about ward committee elections:

The fiasco involving the election process for ward committees in certain municipalities across the province is unacceptable.

The lack of intervention by the MEC to temporariliy through Municipal Managers halt the election processes shows weak leadership by the MEC and a process out of control by the department of Local Government and Traditional Affairs in the province.

Sir, it is easy to say “you are investigating”. The problem is once the investigation is concluded the election process is completed (albeit illegally in some cases) it is far harder to reverse the wrong illegal process than to halt or temporary stay proceedings when the allegations come to light.So the easy way is to let the flawed process stay.

It will not help you to hind behind semantics-the fact of the matter is that section 73(3) of the Municpal Systems Act is being flouted(effectively the law is being broken) and no decisive action is being taken by the head of the department the MEC to take immediate remedial steps to ensuer that their is fair democratic ward committee election processes FOR ALL-that is the bottom line.

The Democratic Alliance hopes now that in those areas where the ward committee election process has been flawed that these elections will be nullified and new elections called.

Thank you again for engaging the DA in this matter.

Best wishes

Yours faithfully

Dacre Haddon MPL