South Africa is rethinking its decentralized water services

Water service delivery failures at the municipal level are a widespread and fundamental problem in South Africa. There are recurring stories in the popular press since early 2009 of poor communities receiving sub-standard basic services, and sometimes no services at all. Municipalities continue to receive qualified audits, to have barely reduced service delivery backlogs in almost a decade, to be plagued by poor physical infrastructure, and there is a generalised problem of poor governance at the municipal level. There are perceptions in the public, based on empirical evidence, that some municipalities do not have the human skills to provide a proper service to the poor by the challenges they face. Other municipalities appear to be unaccountable to their poor and disenfranchised residents.

The central government has already taken over management of two municipalities and is rethinking its decentralization policy. Various departments are considering removing the powers and functions of “basket case” municipalities. South Africa’s civil society is worried about the democratic implications and the impact on the poor, we learned at the “Celebrating our stories” Learning and Sharing Forum of the African Civil Society Network on Water and Sanitation (ANEW), in Lesotho from 7-8 October 2009. The Mvula Trust distributed copies there to civil society organisations from other African countries of its recently presented Water Budget Monitoring Education Tool developed from work on municipal tariffs and local government budgeting by the Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS).

The problem persists

Various national government departments in South Africa have recognised the severity of the problem and have attempted to address it, but the problem persists. Legislation has been enacted to make service delivery more transparent and to make municipal government more accountable for service delivery. Two examples of this are the Municipal Systems Act, which describes how municipal government must include the broader society in budget monitoring and decision making, and the Municipal Finance Act Management Act, which describes how municipal budget documents must be prepared. Despite these efforts, the Department of Co-operative Government and Traditional Affairs recently declared the need for a comprehensive department audit of all municipalities.

Removal of powers and functions one option

South African metropolitan areas and large cities are doing well, in fact, better than most cities than elsewhere on the continent. Smaller municipalities, however, particularly in rural areas are not doing well and this is due to a number of different factors. The most important being that the level of decentralization to some municipalities in the last municipal demarcation round, presented complex powers and functions on local authorities that did not and will never have the capabilities of managing these responsibilities. As such, some levels of departments, given the growing levels of service delivery protests, are beginning to consider how to address this situation, with the actual removal of powers and functions to these areas being one of the options on the table.

Launched on 28 September 2009

CALS and Mvula Trust held a workshop for civil society and community-based organisations on 28 September 2009 presenting their recently developed Water Budget Monitoring Education Tool. CALS and Mvula Trust's research has found that in order to hold municipal government accountable for service delivery, it is important for civil society to understand the budgeting process and elements of public finance, including relevant legislation that governs these processes. The tool is designed to be used by CSOs in the broader training of civil society in the pursuit of enhanced public accountability and better service delivery. While the tool focuses on water, it can be applied to other basic services, including electricity and sanitation.

Empowerment and basic understanding needed

There is a clear need and interest for South African residents to play an active role in ensuring adequate delivery and an accountable local government. To ensure that people enjoy the service delivery they are entitled to, they need to be empowered to engage meaningfully with sometimes complex municipal systems and process around service delivery. This requires an understanding of the rights of access to information and to public participation, as well as a basic understanding of law, economics and financial accounting relevant to analysing municipal tariffs and financial statements. This educational tool is intended to provide such knowledge in order to assist civil society to interpret budget information, as well as other documents related to service delivery.

While the education tool focuses on water specifically, the same principles can be applied to other basic services e.g. electricity and sanitation. The more people understand municipal budgets and service delivery frameworks, the more they are able to ensure a good functioning and accountable government, to the benefit of all.

Training outline and questionnaire

The water budget monitoring education tool includes a training outline and a questionnaire for municipal officials. The booklet is divided into five educational modules. Background information is provided by way of a section which defines key concepts and terms, an overview of the functioning and structure of government, and an introduction to law and a summary of relevant legislation as it affects each module. The five modules are:

Module 1: Analysis of Tariffs
Module 2: Basic Financial Accounting and Budget Documents
Module 3: Asset Management
Module 4: Equitable Share (ES) and Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG)
Module 5: Water Quality Management and Water Education
- The training outline (Annexure 1) serves as a guide to civil society wanting to train members on the five modules.
- The questionnaire for municipal officials (Annexure 2) is to be used as a checklist once participants have gone through the modules. Participants can tick off the questions that they can answer successfully, and can submit the remaining questions (with possible changes) to their municipal authorities, ideally by setting up a meeting with the municipal manager.

Participants should ensure that they are contacting the correct municipal officials when submitting their revised questionnaires. For example, questions on tariffs should be submitted to the technical department of the municipality, whereas most of the budget-related questions can be answered by the financial department of the municipality.

The booklet also refers to an information pack, which contains some of the relevant laws that are referred to the ‘introduction to law and summary of relevant legislation’ section, as well as extracts from eThekwini Metropolitan Municipality’s 2009/10 budget documents.

Freely downloadable PDF
Principal author Paul Berkowitz, with contributions from Jackie Dugard (CALS), Laila Smith (Mvula Trust) and Kate Tissington.

Dick de Jong