Large district municipalities are clumsy and due to factors, like incompetent ANC councillors, they do not deliver the basic services to communities. Local government should rather be decentralised so that smaller municipalities that are closer to the people can improve service delivery, says Dr Pieter Groenewald, leader of the FF Plus.
Today, with the parliamentary debate on the role and efficiency of provinces and district municipalities, Dr Groenewald focused on district municipalities and said that these municipalities have become redundant and are falling apart due to the incompetence of ANC councillors.
According to Dr Groenewald, district municipalities were established in the eighties. In those days, city councils had limited jurisdiction and there were some regions where they had no jurisdiction at all. As a result, district municipalities were established in order to improve service delivery and development in those regions.
“Before 1994, the purpose of district municipalities was to deliver services, like water and roads, in rural areas.
“City councils or municipalities now border on one another and there are no longer regions that fall outside the jurisdiction of some or other municipality. Therefore, district municipalities have become redundant.
“There are currently 44 district municipalities in South Africa with 500 proportionally-elected councillors.
“The FF Plus is of the opinion that these municipalities have become redundant and only serve as a means to deploy cadres.
“On local government level, power should rather be decentralised to lower levels. Municipalities must be made smaller so that the local government can get closer to the voters on ground level. Only then district municipalities can be considered,” says Dr Groenewald.
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