Know your councillor

Written by Albert Pule

It’s important for all South Africans to know their ward councillor because they are the link between the municipality and the community they serve. People can also take their problems to the ward councillor and he/she should deal with these in an appropriate way

What is a local councillor?

A local councillor is a person who provides political leadership in a ward of a municipality. It can be a metropolitan municipality, district municipality or local municipality.

A local councillor can be elected as an independent candidate or represent a political party. They occupy an office for a period of five years in line with the local government elections.

The ward councillor is elected by citizens living in the ward where he/she is standing for elections.

What is the role of a councillor?

A ward councillor is expected to make sure that the concerns raised by people in his/her ward are represented in council.

He/she must also ensure that the ward committee exists and that people in the ward participate in local government.

The councillor must report back regularly through ward meetings and help the community in identifying needs and priority areas of development, which will help the municipality’s planning processes.

Types of councillors

• A ward councillor ensures that the interests of people in a specific ward are represented in council. He/she reports on council activities on a regular basis to the ward to strengthen the relationship with community.
• A proportional representative councillor is a member of a political party and is elected through the party lists. He/she is accountable to the party.
• An independent councillor does not belong to a political party and is accountable to the people who have elected him/her to represent their interests.

Issues you can raise with your councillor:

• Water supply
• Illegal electricity connections
• Housing
• Refuse collection
• Faulty traffic lights
• Dilapidated infrastructure
• Grass that needs cutting
• Any other services offered by the municipality.

Complaints against your councillor

When you have a complaint against your councillor, you can approach the chief whip’s office of the political party he or she belongs to. If it is an independent councillor, you can approach or send a petition to the council’s office. 

How can I find out who my councillor is?

If you want to know who your local councillor is, SMS your ID number to 32245. The SMS will cost you R1.

Source: Government Communications

Cogta News

Community Work Programme

Posted in Programmes

The CWP is an innovative offering from government to provide a job safety net for unemployed people of working age. It provides a bridging opportunity for unemployed youth and others who are actively looking for employment opportunities.

The programme provides them with extra cash to support them in their search for full-time or part-time employment. Programme participants do community work thereby contributing to improvements that benefit all community members.

Purpose of the CWP

• To provide an employment safety net. The CWP recognises that sustainable employment solutions will take time, particularly in reaching marginal economic areas.
• To contribute to the development of public assets and services in poor communities.
• To strengthen community development approaches.
• To improve the quality of life for people in marginalised economic areas by providing work experience, enhancing dignity and promoting social and economic inclusion.

Cogta News

Local Economic Development (LED)

Posted in Programmes

Local Economic Development (LED) is an approach towards economic development which allows and encourages local people to work together to achieve sustainable economic growth and development thereby bringing economic benefits and improved quality of life for all residents in a local municipal area.

As a programme, LED is intended to maximise the economic potential of all municipal localities throughout the country and, to enhance the resilience of the macro-economic growth through increased local economic growth, employment creation and development initiatives within the context of sustainable development. The “local” in economic development points to the fact that the political jurisdiction at a local level is often the most appropriate place for economic intervention as it carries alongside it the accountability and legitimacy of a democratically elected body.

LED provides support in the following areas:

• Development and review of national policy, strategy and guidelines on LED;
• Providing direct and hands-on support to provincial and local government;
• Management of the Local Economic Development Fund;
• Management and Technical Support to Nodal Economic Development Planning;
• Facilitating coordinating and monitoring of donor programmes, and
• Assisting on LED capacity building processes.

Cogta News

Municipal Infrastructure Grant (MIG)

Posted in Programmes

The MIG aims to eradicate municipal infrastructure backlogs in poor communities to ensure the provision of basic services such as water, sanitation, roads and community lighting. 

The Department of Cooperative Governance is responsible for managing and transferring the MIG and provides support to provinces and municipalities on implementing MIG projects.

Cogta News

The Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF)

Posted in Programmes

The Integrated Urban Development Framework (IUDF) is a policy initiative of the Government of South Africa, coordinated by the Department Of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs(COGTA).  

The IUDF seeks to foster a shared understanding across government and society about how best to manage urbanisation and achieve the goals of economic development, job creation and improved living conditions for our people

COGTA’s vision is to build a functional and developmental local government system that delivers on its Constitutional and legislative mandates within a system of cooperative governance.

Cogta News

Back to Basics

Posted in Programmes

On Thursday, 18 September 2014, President Jacob Zuma and the Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Pravin Gordhan hosted a Presidential Local Government Summit.

The summit included key local government and private sector leaders who adopted the Back to Basics approach as an urgent action plan to strengthen local government by getting the basics right.

             The Context for the Back to Basics Concept and Approach

• The White Paper on Local Government and the Municipal Structures Act, provided that district municipalities should fulfil the following developmental mandates:
• Ensuring integrated development planning for the district as a whole;
• Providing district-wide bulk infrastructural development and services;
• Building capacity of local municipalities in its area to perform their functions and exercise their powers, where such capacity is lacking;
• Promoting equitable distribution of resources between local municipalities in its area to ensure appropriate levels of municipal service within the area
• Developmental local government remains the visionary foundation for the continuing reconstruction and development of our country. The Local Government White Paper developed a vision of local government as a key component of the developmental state.
• In pursuit of that vision, basic services, social services, and civil and political rights, including participatory governance, have been progressively extended to more citizens than ever before.
• It is recognized however, that despite our delivery achievements, much still needs to be done to improve the performance of local government.COGTA Initiated Back to Basics by:

• Conducting a desk top assessment of municipalities in all nine provinces;
• By verifying the findings with provinces;
• By presenting this state of LG to PCC, MinMec; and a launch in Presidential LG Summit;
• By developing 3 categories of municipal performance to initiate focused action.From the assessment it was determined that a third of the municipalities are getting the basics right and functioning well; a third are fairly functional with average performance, and room for improvement; and the final third are dysfunctional. The assessment was conducted using the following functional factors:

• Political stability
• Governance
• Service delivery
• Financial Management
• Institutional management
• Community satisfactionThe Five Pillars of the Back to Basics Campaign are:

1. Putting people and their concerns first;
2. Supporting the delivery of municipal services to the right quality and standard;
3. Promoting good governance, transparency and accountability;
4. Ensuring sound financial management and accounting; and
5. Building institutional resilience and administrative capability.

You can access related documents by visiting the Back to Basics website. 

Reporting:

In our efforts to recognise and adequately reward good performance and ensure sufficient consequences for under-performance, the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCoG) has developed a set of indicators to be reported on monthly as per the pillars of the Back to Basics approach.
These indicators will measure whether municipalities are performing in terms of the five ‘basics’.

You can access the Back to Basics monthly reporting dashboard