DEPARTMENT OF COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE

1. DEPARTMENT OF COOPERATIVE GOVERNANCE BACK TO BASICS: PROGRESS AND NEXT PHASE Wednesday, 19 August 2015

2. Overview • Initial Phase of B2B Programme • Progress in initial phase of B2B • B2B monthly reporting: Emerging trends from the first six months report • Remaining challenges • Focus areas of the next phase of B2B 2

3. Initial phase of the Back to Basics Programme • In 2014 COGTA did a comprehensive analysis of the state of local government and categorised municipalities as: “Doing well, Potential to do well, Dysfunctional”. • B2B launched at the Presidential LG Summit in Sept 2014 – B2B now well known and accepted; obtained traction within and outside of government; has touched all municipalities • Initial aim at inception was to focus on the immediate challenges in the local government sphere, in order to get the basics in municipal service delivery functioning effectively. • B2B was conceptualised to be rolled out in phases. 3

4. Progress in the Initial Phase • The B2B programme was formally launched in 9 provinces; • Provincial B2B task teams established and are conducting hands-on monitoring. These teams are comprising of national and provincial CoGTA, and sector departments; • The B2B teams have developed municipal support plans – these have been adopted by municipalities; 4

5. Progress in the Initial Phase • An average of 180 municipalities are consistently reporting every month on their performance against set indicators in the B2B programme; • MECs and SALGA are reporting to MinMEC on B2B implementation; • Premiers report to the PCC on B2B implementation; and • Support and intervention packages were prepared for identified “hot-spot” municipalities. 5

6. Progress in the Initial Phase - COGTA • Unannounced visits by the Minister to selected municipalities resulting in the development of support and good governance packages (Malamulele, Mogalakwena, Makana and Oudtshoorn LMs, Nelson Mandela Bay and Buffalo City Metros); • Inter-Ministerial Task Team on Basic Services established; • Metro Mayors Forum and District WSA forum established; • Private sector support offers: • Telkom – Integration of IT systems and data development; • Old Mutual – 20 municipalities identified for support with regard to B2B Pillar dealing with “Building Capable Local Government Institutions”; • FNB / Banking Council - Project and programme management capacity and systems innovation; 6

7. Progress in the Initial Phase - CoGTA • Ministerial visits will be undertaken by CoGTA to conduct comprehensive assessments of Provincial CoGTAdepartments in relation to their capacity and support plans for B2B implementation; and • CoGTA has commenced with work regarding spatial integration and implementation focusing on district municipalities. 7

8. Progress in the Initial Phase – Provincial CoGTA Varied provincial support approaches are emerging such as: • Provincial government B2B launches; • Local government B2B champions (MECs & HODs) assigned to district municipalities to resolve service delivery issues affecting municipalities; • Development of assessment templates linked to the CoGTA monthly B2B reporting to inform the B2B categorisation of municipalities; • MoUs signed between “dysfunctional” municipalities and the Premier and MEC for Local Government; • In “Putting People First” ward-based planning and spatial mapping of Annual Performance Plans (APPs) have been initiated in a number of municipalities; 8

9. Progress in the Initial Phase – Provincial CoGTA • Financial monitoring tool to provide dedicated support to municipalities receiving disclaimers, and those owing Eskom, etc.; • The provincial governments’ direct and coordinated intervention through programmes and projects that have high impact and long term sustainability; • Complaints Management Systems developed Provincial CoGTA and utilised by municipalities; and • Strategies to support municipalities are a combined effort between the major sector departments under the joint leadership of provincial CoGTA and Provincial Treasury. 9

10. B2B monthly reporting: Emerging trends from the first six months report • Some of the emerging trends after six months of reporting (from the 236 municipalities that reported at least once in the six months) are: • Municipalities who failed to respond to the B2B Monthly indicators were not always those that are dysfunctional • Dysfunctional municipalities were however less likely to provide monthly dashboard information • The B2B monthly information system has been functional since October 2014 and it is therefore early to detect significant trends and impact. Some movement can however be detected in certain areas which is highlighted with regard to the B2B Pillars, as follows: 10

11. Putting People First • A substantial number of the reporting municipalities (161 out of 236) held their ward committee meetings more often than quarterly; • Ward Councillor report-back meetings in the reporting municipalities were on average less than the number of ward committee meetings (64%); • Some 541 service delivery protests were registered in the reporting municipalities over the six month period. 217 of these (40%) turned violent with Gauteng having the highest recorded levels of protests followed by Western Cape, Eastern Cape and Mpumalanga; • Only between 70-80% of reporting municipalities indicated that they have a Complaints Management System in place. 11

12. Service Delivery • Response times on service delivery failures: • Nationally just over 40% of all electricity outages resolved in reporting municipalities in “less than 3 hours”. • Just over 30% of sewerage spillagesaddressed in “less than 3 hours” in reporting municipalities. • Just over 25% of water stoppages solved in “less than 3 hours”. • Refuse removal: There is good access of households to refuse removal in the reporting municipalities and importantly this service is regular and relatively frequent with most indicating that they collected refuse from homes once a week (74,1%). • 12

13. Service Delivery (cont) • Some 4,9 million households in reporting municipalities received Free Basic Water each month. • Some 1,7 million households in reporting municipalities received Free Basic Electricity each month. • A high proportion of metropolitan and local reporting municipalities have indigent registers. Except for Limpopo and Mpumalanga, all provinces had at least 80% of their reporting municipalities indicating that they had indigent registers in their municipality. An average of 2,1 million households were listed in indigent registers  in reporting municipalities over six month period. • 13

14. Good Governance • Council meetings held: 85% of reporting municipalities met the legal requirement of one council meeting every quarter. • Participation of traditional leaders in municipal councils: Of the 236 municipalities that reported at least once in the six months, 108 had traditional leaders within their jurisdiction and 571 traditional leaders served in an ex-officio capacity (in the 108 councils). • EXCO/Mayoral Committee meetings: Of the 236 reporting muns, around 66% had at least a meeting once a quarter (12%) or more frequently (54% - 3 meetings or more).   • MPAC meetings: Only 52% of reporting municipalities had at least a meeting every quarter (16%), or more frequently (36% - 3 meetings or more). • 14

15. Good Governance: Dismissals for fraud and corruption • Over the six month period 150 persons were dismissed from the reporting municipalities as a result of fraud and corruption 15

16. Sound Financial Management • Overall 3 291 tenders over the value of R200 000 have been awarded in the reporting municipalities in the 6 month period - an average of 3,14 such tenders for the municipalities that reported. • The overall average time taken for tenders to be awarded in the 6 months was 40,4 days with reporting municipalities in Gauteng (60,9 days), Western Cape (53,2 days) and KwaZulu-Natal (47,9 days) taking the highest amount of time to finalise tenders. • Reporting municipalities in Western Cape have significantly more usage of Section 36 awards as compared with the other provinces. This is followed by reporting municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal and Northern Cape provinces. 16

17. Building Capable Local Government Institutions The vacancy rates of senior management in reporting municipalities appear high with: • An average of 84% of reporting municipalities that had filled positions of Municipal Manager (average vacancy rate of 16%). • On average 80,9% of Chief Financial Officer positions had been filled in reporting municipalities each month (average vacancy rate of 19%). • On average 83,59% of section 56 vacancies have been filled in the reporting municipalities over six months (average vacancy rate of 16%) 17

18. B2B: Remaining challenges • Weaknesses in delivery of basic services remain in many municipalities; 2. Political instability and weaknesses in governance are two of the primary causes of poor service delivery at municipal level; 3. In certain instances the highest level of political intervention is therefore required to resolve problems; 4. Municipalities with weaknesses in governance and corporate management functions such as financial management, HRM and SCM also tend to experience difficulties in service delivery; 5. Some of the B2B actions plans do not address some of the key underlying causes of problems in municipalities; 6. Few municipalities have conducted Citizen Satisfaction Surveys; 7. Processes and systems for citizen engagement are generally weak in municipalities categorized as “dysfunctional” and “at-risk”; and 8. Incomplete and inaccurate data provided by municipalities. 18

19. Focus areas of the next phase of B2B • Work smarter and innovatively to increase impact • Focus on 20% of actions that will deliver 80% of impact • Make better use of available legal and other levers • More effective monitoring and accountability: Engage in more interventionist monitoring and accountability, e.g: • Set minimum service standards for key indicators (use legislative and policy levers) • Act on monitoring data: e.g. rapid response, calling mayors and MM’s via conference calls, support, legal interventions • Establish programmes to address generic systemic problems – e.g. weaknesses in human resource management, supply chain management, infrastructure procurement and financial management • Strengthen community participation and local government accountability to citizens - mechanisms for enabling citizen complaints and engagements between citizens and municipalities not effective. 19

20. Focus areas of next phase of B2B 4. Strengthen communication about local government, use examples of best practice to promote change, and create a more positive narrative which recognises the problems but commits everyone to working together to address them 5. Ensuring accelerated delivery of basic services re water, sanitation, electricity, roads and storm-water and waste removal. 6. Tackling corruption 7. Tackling “dysfunctional” municipalities, moving “at risk” municipalities to “doing well” and preventing any municipalities from regressing – special focus for dysfunctional municipalities. 8. Mobilise multi-departmental teams to tackle dysfunctional municipalities (mobilise national and provincial resources) 9. Improving support and intervention to address weaknesses in support programme and interventions being designed and implemented. 10. Capacitating national and provincial CoGTA to implement the next phase of B2B. 20

21. THANK YOU!