The Constitution allocates municipalities five over-arching functions: to govern in a democratic manner;  to ensure the provision of basic services; to promote social and economic development;  to promote a safe and healthy environment; and to encourage community participation in local government.

As a result of these five functions, Municipalities play a key and central role in the delivery of infrastructure services.

The importance of this role is further emphasised by the fact that South Africa is  currently on a multibillion-rand development drive to remedy the skewed development of  infrastructure during the apartheid years, and to meet the demands of a growing economy and population. Further, the country is preparing to host the 2010 Fifa Football World Cup, for which the government is investing heavily in stadia, and on upgrading the energy, transport and telecoms infrastructure needed for this massive event.

However the 2007/2008 National Capacity Assessment Report  published by the Demarcation Board shows that most of the country’s municipalities (74%) are performing less than 50% of their functions. The reasons vary by municipality but are predominantly due to the lack of skilled experienced capacity. In the same report the Demarcation Board notes that an “exceedingly high” number of municipal manager positions were being filled with people with limited experience of both local government and the position itself. In 25% of municipalities, the post of Chief Financial Officer is vacant. Technical Service Managers positions were generally staffed, but the majority of managers had limited experience in the position – with only half of the managers having more than five years of local government experience.

Poor service delivery and the service delivery protests occurring increasingly around the country draw attention to the shortcomings of municipalities and their ability to deliver adequate services. There are numerous support programmes underway to assist municipalities to improve infrastructure and service delivery. However, the impact of these initiatives has been limited, primarily because of their short term nature and the lack of coordination between these programmes.

South Africa’s municipalities vary tremendously in their physical characteristics, demographics, investment needs, economic bases of their areas and their administrative and political capacity. Consequently, the nature of their intergovernmental relations with the Provincial and National spheres and the support they require must vary accordingly.  At the heart of the challenge of municipal infrastructure capacity, is the need to build the required capacity and at the same time meet the constitutional imperative for all municipalities to deliver services efficiently to all, in their area of jurisdiction.

This dialogue provides the platform to review progress, debate constraints and identify opportunities for constructively moving forward.

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