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.

New White Paper could be death certificate for some municipalities

Soundbite: Deidré Steffens (English)

Soundbite: Deidré Steffens (Afrikaans)

AfriForum today wrote to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa, criticising his comments that smaller, failed municipalities should merge with larger municipalities, and believes that this is not the solution to municipal problems, but that it could potentially cause more problems. This follows Hlabisa’s comments on 19 May during the launch of the review of the White Paper on Local Government, which aimed to announce possible changes to municipal boundaries. The White Paper aims to rethink the role and functions of local government and find solutions to current problems.

According to AfriForum, these comments once again show that the government is unable to see its own systemic shortcomings and then confuses reorganisation with problem solving.

The minister’s statement that municipalities that are not viable should rather merge with larger municipalities that have a proper financing model is dangerous as it does not address the root of the problem – poor service delivery and mismanagement. The size of a municipality is not directly related to good service delivery.

According to Deidré Steffens, AfriForum’s advisor for Local Government Affairs, municipalities like Mangaung would have excelled if the expansion of municipal boundaries and further centralisation were the solution. “However, the opposite is true. Mangaung, the only metro in the Free State and the largest in the country, has been placed under section 139 administration since April 2022 due to mismanagement.

“Adjusting municipal boundaries is like playing hot potato with the real problems: mismanagement and corruption. Instead of solving the problems, the ‘failed’ municipality is simply renamed and absorbed by a larger municipality,” adds Steffens.

AfriForum is of the opinion that mergers do not solve the core problems. In fact, it becomes more difficult and more complicated to manage geographically complex areas. The larger the system that needs to be managed, the more infrastructure and better management skills are required.

What makes larger municipalities attractive to government is the fact that the sliding scale of municipal salaries is linked to the size of the municipality. The larger the area of the municipality that is included for levies, the larger the salaries of the municipal officials.

In the letter, AfriForum says that the government must recognise that it is becoming increasingly urgent for partnerships between community organisations such as AfriForum, private companies and municipalities to find workable solutions to these challenges. “Many municipalities are struggling to keep up with the deterioration of infrastructure, general service delivery and basic administration such as accounts. Many businesses and organisations that have interests in their areas would much rather help get the municipality back on its feet than watch everything fall apart,” Steffens concludes.

AfriForum is committed to holding municipalities accountable within their current demarcation. This stance is also maintained throughout AfriForum’s continued participation in the review process of the White Paper on Local Government.