Deputy Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Parks Tau said the problems facing municipalities included deepening debt, a lack of revenue collection and the over-use of consultants.
Deputy Cogta Minister Parks Tau. Picture: @NationalCoGTA/Twitter
CAPE TOWN – The crisis in local government is not just administrative – it’s also political.
That’s according to deputy Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Parks Tau.
He on Friday addressed the final day of the National Council of Province’s local government week.
As was the case with most speakers, Tau’s input focused mainly on all the problems facing municipalities.
These range from deepening debt, a lack of revenue collection and the over-use of consultants.
Tau said the crisis in local government was not just administrative.
“There is a general consensus across many submissions about the multi-faceted problems and challenges facing local government and this requires action from all of us. While the manifestations of the symptoms of the problem reveal themselves starkly in the AG’s report, in fact the crisis in local government is not just administrative but structural.”
Tau also said municipalities were crippled by debt and they employed people who were not qualified.
“We see over-bloated municipal organisational structures, inflated salaries, a lack of skilled personnel, low levels of capacity and capability, and over-reliance on consultants for basic functions.”
