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Leading local government experts have called for a proper dialogue that will formulate an efficient working plan to ensure that residents in Amakhosi-run areas are paying for services that are rendered by municipalities.
The experts include former eThekwini City Manager Dr. Mike Sutcliffe and University of KwaZulu-Natal academic Professor Purshottama Reddy who have welcomed the call for Amakhosi to be part of Executive Committee(Exco) meetings at municipalities made by Cooperative Governance and Traditiional Affairs(Cogta) MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi last week.
With eThekwini and Msunduzi Municipalities recording high water usage that has since resulted in curtailments, calls have been made to ensure that everyone pays for services rendered by municipalities.
A gathering of mayors and Amakhosi which was called by the Cogta MEC heard how eThekwini’s water usage was higher than the international average.
Most residents who live in Durban and Pietermaritzburg have expressed concern at how they were made to pay for services while residents living in massive properties enjoy services for free.
“If you look at places like Adams you will see these big houses and people are not paying for anything, yet one pays thousands of rands to eThekwini municipality each month. It really is not fair,” said one Glenmore resident.
A similar complaint has been expressed by Pietermaritzburg residents who have pointed out how in areas such as Mpumuza, KwaNxamalala and KwaShange which all fall under traditional leadership have residents enjoying municipal services without paying for it.
Sutcliffe said the involvement of Amakhosi in exco meetings was an opportune moment to ensure that residents under their leadership pay for services in order to ensure the financial viability of municipalities.
“What needs to happen is to have some form of arrangement in which some form of levy is paid by residents in the areas. A portion of this can then be ploughed back to the community so that way the municipality continues to function and be able to provide services,” he told Sunday Tribune.
He insisted on the need to attend to this swiftly, noting that in KZN about 40 municipalities have Amakhosi within their localities.
“We should have a serious engagement with Amakhosi on this, and not wait until tensions have arisen,” the former eThekwini city manager said.
Sutcliffe said that the involvement of traditional leadership in local government affairs was provided for by the legislation, and therefore did not warrant any alterations to the law.
Professor Reddy, who is a Subnational Governance Specialist in the Graduate School of Business at UKZN noted that traditional leadership and governance has been constitutionalised, adding that the inclusion of the traditional leaders on the executive committees of councils gave effect to the notion of cooperative governance.
Reddy said the ideal situation was one where traditional leaders were working jointly with the councils and councillors in the broader context of co- operative governance as envisaged in the Constitution.
“We also need to move to a situation where the rural areas in the country are being gradually transformed to become financially sustainable. This will also ensure that basic municipal services are enhanced thereby improving the lives of local communities as espoused by the Constitution, he stressed.
Traditional leaders, Professor Reddy added, needed to be capacitated relative to local governance and developed with local economic development prioritised in the rural areas to facilitate job creation and alleviate poverty.