Who and what is AfriForum?

AfriForum is an Afrikaans civil rights organisation that protects the rights of minority groups at national as well as provincial level, and anyone who can identify with AfriForum’s principles and objectives may join the organisation. AfriForum’s community plan focuses on mobilising communities to thus take control of their own streets and neighbourhoods again. AfriForum ensures that your constitutional and civil rights are recognised and protected at national level.

Wie en wat is AfriForum?

AfriForum is ’n Afrikaanse burgerregteorganisasie wat die regte van minderheidsgroepe op sowel nasionale as provinsiale vlak beskerm, en enigiemand wat met AfriForum se beginsels en doelstellings kan identifiseer, mag by die organisasie aansluit. AfriForum se gemeenskapsplan fokus daarop om gemeenskappe te mobiliseer om só weer beheer terug te neem oor hul eie strate en woonbuurtes. AfriForum verseker dat jou grondwetlike én burgerregte op nasionale vlak erken en beskerm word.

AfriForum warns: White Paper revision of no value if corruption continues to prevail

Soundbite: Deidré Steffens (English)

Soundbite: Deidré Steffens (Afrikaans)

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) must first address corruption in municipalities before pursuing reform. This is the gist of AfriForum’s commentary on COGTA’s discussion document, which was published earlier this year and serves as the first step in revising the 1998 White Paper on Local Government.

This discussion document highlights numerous challenges faced by local governments, including financial instability, service delivery failures, a shortage of skilled personnel, malpractices and a passive citizenry.

AfriForum believes that no meaningful change can be brought about if solutions to corruption are not looked at in depth. Municipalities must first put transparent tender processes in place; appoint staff based on merit and not political connections; select competent, legal contractors and manage and spend budgets with integrity, only then will the condition of municipalities improve.

According to Deidré Steffens, AfriForum’s advisor for Local Government Affairs, it is clear that COGTA does not consider corruption to be important enough as the discussion document refers to reform 47 times in the document and only eight times, in passing, to corruption.

“Municipalities across the country are in a dire state not because of a lack of legislation, but rather the non-compliance with legislation that is already in place. Officials are not bothered about complying with laws because they know that there are no consequences for violating them,” says Steffens.

In their comments, AfriForum calls for concrete, enforceable plans to bring corrupt officials to justice and permanently remove them from office.

“We see too many cases where an official bleeds a municipality dry, is not held accountable for it and as a so-called punishment is simply transferred to another municipality to continue his crimes there,” adds Steffens.

In order to present a credible revised White Paper, COGTA should also pay attention to the following:

The politicisation of municipalities must be eliminated as it has a negative impact on service delivery. Although the discussion document refers to the over-politicisation of municipalities, it fails to implement effective regulatory action to solve the problem.
Public participation processes must be more than just an administrative activity. The first step to building citizens’ trust is to truly listen to their input during public participation processes and take it to heart in the implementation of municipal systems. The blame for passive civic participation cannot be placed at the door of community members.
Real consequences management must be introduced such as mandatory lifestyle audits, public registers of misconduct and automatic suspensions for officials involved in corruption.
Proactive, risk-based disaster management planning must be prioritised to protect communities and critical infrastructure.

According to Morné Mostert, Manager for Local Government Affairs at AfriForum, the country cannot afford to have another White Paper that only describes serious problems in vague terms without offering practical, enforceable solutions.

“We don’t just need another cycle of policy reform that doesn’t provide real answers to the causes of local government collapse. New frameworks, guidelines and processes have their place, but they will achieve nothing if government doesn’t grab the bull by the horns and solve issues such as the politicisation of municipalities, corruption and a gross lack of accountability,” Mostert concludes.