Our councillors: the Champagne-glass-toting illiterates

It has always been difficult to understand why our local government structures have performed so poorly over the past decade. Sure, re-building a country on the micro-level is no easy task, but the rate at which things happen and the attitude with which local municipal councillors have approached improving their designated wards has left much to be desired. Poor decision-making, corruption, embezzlement, inefficient services and maintenance and autocratic leadership has left the general public largely enraged. Of course it all makes perfect sense now, especially after it was revealed just the other day that one in three municipal councillors in South Africa cannot read and write.

With the way municipalities are managed, we always knew it had to be something serious; either illiteracy or some sort of mental disability.

Never mind that being a councillor is an actual job with responsibilities over and above receiving a fat cheque and being chauffeur driven with blue lights flashing across the city. The fact that two thirds of municipal councilors across the country do not have the capacity to even read this article is disgraceful and undermines democratic values of representation, participation and accountability.

The study of local government structures was conducted by the South African Local Government Association (Salga). One of the findings of the report was that many councillors did not understand their roles or the necessary regulatory framework, nor did they follow proceedings or benefit from training exercises because of a poor understanding of English. It was also found that most councillors preferred to engage in their native tongues.

Preferring to engage in one’s mother tongue rather than in English could be deemed acceptable, even understandable, but not being able to understand their roles, or interpret legislation, or follow council proceedings, makes local politics look like an even bigger circus than was first imagined.

The electorate may vote in whomsoever they wish, with flawed candidates clearly reflecting historical inequities. However, is it naïve to assume that candidates were voted in by an electorate seriously interested in their welfare and development, trusting that the candidate voted in possessed the necessary skills and capacities to tangibly perform their obligations as public servants? Moreover, is it a juvenile conclusion that these office bearers need to be removed if it is found they aren’t any more capable of holding said office than the average kid in grade five?

Indeed, could one imagine communities, even the most rural or traditional or culturally conservative (or any other constructs that might “explain” voting in candidates specific electorates whom they might identify with), selecting a representative that would have no more capacities or skills to improve their social condition, over themselves? Historical inequalities granted, is it not unfair that candidates desire leadership positions when they do not possess the necessary skills do so?

If councillors cannot interpret budgets, laws, proceedings and are unsure of their role, then who is running the show?

According to Salga, R32 million is budgeted to improve the capacities of councillors including providing some with Adult Basic Education and Training (ABET)

ABET was introduced by the South African government in the mid-nineties as a means to assist a large number of South African adults gain basic education and skills to grant them better opportunities in the labour market. But with job losses, retrenchments and the like, ABET, in its current format of simply providing basic education without more technical skills, is said to be inadequate in granting adults entry into a saturated job market. What irony that the very local structures advocating basic education are lacking it themselves.

Even worse, those adults who have received ABET training are still largely unemployed, battling to earn a pittance, while being represented by blue light flashing-chauffeur-driven-champagne-glass-toting-illiterates.

Defending councillors who would rather play with shapes and enjoy steak lunches as symbols of historical redress and political justice is farcical. Over and above playing to the gallery and making false promises to their constituencies, councillors need to illustrate competence as administrators tasked with improving service delivery and the social and economic conditions of their wards.

Never mind the under-resourced schools, libraries and malnourished scholars who strive for a better life in candle lit homes; let us now spend millions on educating those in power to read and write.