No value for money in local government

The nett pay of councillors in Tshwane is apparently R18 000 a month, while their counterparts in Johannesburg and eKurhuleni earn between R13 000 and R14 000.

If you live in Pretoria, Centurion, Mamelodi, Hammanskraal or surrounds, you put R36 000 a month into your ward and PR councillor’s pockets.

Whether ANC or DA, in government or not, you pay two individuals R216 000 each per year to represent, serve, and remain accessible and accountable to you in the affairs of your ward and your community.

Since they were elected in 2006, your councillor in Pretoria or the broader Tshwane metro, has received approximately R1 080 000 to be your direct link with your local government.

The annual taxpayer-funded bill for councillor salaries in Tshwane, for all 210 of them, amounts to R45 360 000 and a staggering R113 400 000 for their five-year term in office.

As a bit of a realist I can’t help but look at this figure and question the return on the investment or value for money, if any, for us as residents. As idealist I wonder how these people sleep at night.

When I look at the constitutional duties and responsibilities of local government, the performance of our municipalities, and the salaries our representatives draw, I can’t help but observe a mismatch in the whole process. Of course your councillors don’t make things happen, that is the job of the executive committee. But executive decisions are only as good as the input and feedback that informs them.

Your councillor then, in theory, is that pivotal link between your interest and that group of men and women who make things happen. This is why we call them representatives.

In order for this to happen effectively, your representative needs to hear your concerns, demands and receive input and feedback from you to ensure your voice is heard in your local government. After all, s/he gets paid R18 000 per month to do this.

Sadly, this does not happen, and it is not only ANC councillors who fall short of fulfilling their most basic duty.

Since 2006 I have lived in four wards in Tshwane, all four of them represented by a DA councillor. Trying to find or get a hold of these men and women, DA as they might be, has proven as fruitless as the search for the Kruger Millions. As they have gone about “delivering for all” I have been unable to get a hold of them and they have no public profile or make no public appearances (apart from during election time, of course).

They get paid the same as their ANC counterparts in the council, and apart from their political allegiance there is no tangible or practical difference in the quality of service they deliver to the community.

As residents we are being done in, and it costs us R113 400 000. Citizen democracy, a meaningful partnership between resident and governance structures and processes, and effective, quality representation at this most basic level of government is dead.

There is no consultation, no transparency, and no accountability from our representatives and posters dot the landscape of Pretoria selling us the lie that Jacob, Helen, Lindiwe, Patricia or Zanele will make Tshwane the African capital it deserves to be and give its residents the quality governance it deserves.

Originally published on my Facebook page.