The Mammoth in the Municipal Room
Significantly, the mammoth in the room is avoided in both the opinion piece on South Africa’s municipal crisis and The Mercury’s editorial on the subject (July 28).
Whilst credible cases can be made for rapid urbanization and the fact that the existing urban infrastructure was never built to handle the burden it is now being expected to carry, they do not address the heart of the matter. In Rory Lynsky’s historical account of Durban titled They Built a City, what stands out is that progress and development were achieved through application by qualified men from John Barnes, the Borough Engineer in 1882, through to Don McLeod late in the last century. Like his predecessors, McLeod became City Engineer after having worked his way up the ladder of experience.
Sadly and unforgivably, when change came after 1994, that lesson of municipal history was rapidly discarded in order to address the ideological obsession with demographic representivity. On the altar of ‘transformation,’ institutional memory, experience and merit were sacrificed. Instead, political connections and cadre employment determined appointments.
Rory Lynsky’s account details how those who built Durban planned for change, extension and urban expansion, particularly with regard to water supply and sanitation. They adhered to plans which charted the ageing of infrastructure, thereby ensuring timeous renewal and upgrading. Equally important was the fact that those employed served out of commitment based on aptitude.
Well, that’s all water under the bridge. It’s gone and is irreplaceable. The technical and mechanical training that used to be provided within the railways and sound municipal corporations like Durban once had is no more. Recently it was reported that one can qualify as a plumber after 3 months of training. That would never have been the case before 1994.
It is therefore a pipedream to view the forthcoming municipal elections as offering the chance to reverse the dysfunction within municipalities. Councillors, regardless of their skills, do not manage service delivery. That is what is provided by those appointed to the various service units. Apart from aftersight – not oversight – councillors can tweak budgets drawn up by officials and vote on them, but council debating chambers are not the engine rooms of municipalities.
So, the bitter reality is that no matter which party dominates a council, no matter how determined it is to improve matters, as long as the cadres and politically connected officials are entrenched in the municipal structure, change is going to be elusive. That is the mammoth in the room.
