MUNICIPAL POWERS AND FUNCTIONS CAPACITY ASSESSMENT 2018

NATIONAL REPORT

NOTE:

In this report, data from a wide variety of sources were used. Municipalities were requested to provide information on broad aspects of governance, capacity and the performance of functions. Stats SA data from the population census and municipal censuses (Non-Financial and Financial) were used to determine population size, number of households and service backlogs. Other data were sourced from National Treasury, LGSETA, SARS, CoGTA, SAPS, MDB, etc. for this assessment of capacity. However, given that many municipalities did not provide all the information requested of them, these additional data sources were combined with their own data. All municipalities were also provided with the information contained herein and requested to verify all information in these capacity assessments, and to provide additional information where necessary. Therefore, the MDB takes no responsibility for any inaccurate information and the interpretation thereof.

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Contents

1 Introduction and background ......................................................................................................... 1

2 Methodology employed ................................................................................................................. 4

2.1 Municipal questionnaire ......................................................................................................... 4

2.2 Additional data sources .......................................................................................................... 4

2.3 Methodological Challenges .................................................................................................... 5

2.4 Comparative analysis ............................................................................................................. 8

3 The state of local governance ..................................................................................................... 10

4 Environmental situation ............................................................................................................... 16

4.1 Demographics and Social Context ....................................................................................... 19

4.2 Age structure ........................................................................................................................ 21

4.3 Household size and density ................................................................................................. 21

4.4 Income and employment ...................................................................................................... 23

4.5 Land Cover .......................................................................................................................... 26

4.6 Education services ............................................................................................................... 26

5 Amalgamation of municipalities ................................................................................................... 29

5.1 Background to the municipal boundary redeterminations: 2011-2016 ................................. 29

5.2 Municipal mergers: Before and after 2016 municipal elections ........................................... 32

5.3 Municipality’s Demarcation Process Issues ......................................................................... 47

5.4 Concluding Comments on Amalgamations .......................................................................... 55

6 Institutional Overview .................................................................................................................. 61

6.1 Financial overview ............................................................................................................... 61

6.2 State of Governance ............................................................................................................ 65

6.3 Engagements with the public ............................................................................................... 66

6.4 Focus on the poor ................................................................................................................ 67

6.5 Compliance with key policies ............................................................................................... 68

6.6 Budgetary challenges .......................................................................................................... 70

7 Individual capacity ....................................................................................................................... 72

7.1 Political leadership ............................................................................................................... 72

7.2 Senior Management ............................................................................................................. 73

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7.3 Staffing stability .................................................................................................................... 75

7.4 Staffing competency ............................................................................................................ 76

7.5 Professional associations .................................................................................................... 77

7.6 MFMA Competency ............................................................................................................. 79

8 National overview of capacity to perform functions ..................................................................... 80

8.1 Functions for which Minister takes responsibility ................................................................. 83

8.2 Shared functions for which MECs take responsibility .......................................................... 84

8.3 Local Functions for which MEC takes responsibility ............................................................ 87

8.4 Municipal Powers and Functions: Assignments ................................................................... 91

8.5 Powers and Functions Summary ......................................................................................... 97

9 Conclusions and Recommendations ......................................................................................... 100

9.1 Performance of functions by Municipal Department .......................................................... 100

9.2 Human Capacity ................................................................................................................ 107

9.3 Infrastructure ...................................................................................................................... 124

9.4 Budget allocations .............................................................................................................. 128

9.5 Recommendations ............................................................................................................. 132

10 APPENDIX ............................................................................................................................. 134

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List of figures

Figure 1: Completion of MDB capacity assessments by MIIF and Province ........................................ 5

Figure 2: Map of submissions from local municipalities ........................................................................ 6

Figure 3: Map of municipalities by MIIF type, and breakdown of municipalities per province by MIIF type

............................................................................................................................................................... 9

Figure 4: Map of Section 139 interventions ........................................................................................ 11

Figure 5: Map of adverse audits or disclaimers .................................................................................. 12

Figure 6: Percentage of total population and land area per province .................................................. 19

Figure 7: Population growth and sex ratio .......................................................................................... 20

Figure 8: Map of population growth 2001 - 2011 ................................................................................ 20

Figure 9: Provincial Racial breakdown ............................................................................................... 21

Figure 10: Age breakdown per province .............................................................................................. 21

Figure 11: Household size .................................................................................................................. 22

Figure 12: Percentage population by density ..................................................................................... 23

Figure 13: Household income ............................................................................................................. 24

Figure 14: Employment and Unemployment ...................................................................................... 25

Figure 15: Dependency and inequality ............................................................................................... 25

Figure 16: Land cover ......................................................................................................................... 26

Figure 17: Matric pass rate and percentage of youth in school .......................................................... 27

Figure 18: Percentage population by level of education ..................................................................... 28

Figure 19: Audit outcomes .................................................................................................................. 62

Figure 20: Municipalities in Financial Distress by Province ................................................................ 64

Figure 21: Years persistent financial distress ...................................................................................... 64

Figure 22: Number of ward committee meetings held per local municipality in 2017/18 .................... 66

Figure 23: Percent of municipalities per province with a free basic water policy in place ................... 67

Figure 24: Average amounts owed by municipalities to Eskom by province ...................................... 69

Figure 25: Average percentage of operating expenditure by municipalities on staffing costs ............ 70

Figure 26: Average municipal dependence on grants per province ................................................... 70

Figure 27: Gender of Municipal Mayors per municipality .................................................................... 72

Figure 28: Municipal Manager and CFO Vacancies by Province ....................................................... 73

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Figure 29: Average Years Experience for Municipal Senior Management ......................................... 74

Figure 30: Average years’ experience for Municipal Managers, Chief Financial Officers and Section 56

Positions .............................................................................................................................................. 75

Figure 31: Average number of persons retired/ boarded and dismissed per year per municipality by

MIIF type .............................................................................................................................................. 75

Figure 32: Average number of staff by qualification and MIIF type ............................................................. 77

Figure 33: Average number of staff registered with planning, engineering and financial professional

bodies by MIIF type ............................................................................................................................. 78

Figure 34: Provincial Breakdown of Ministerial authorised functions performed by Local or District municipalities ....................................................................................................................................... 84

Figure 35: Average staff numbers per function ................................................................................... 84

Figure 36: Capex and Opex 2017/18 budgets per ministers functions ............................................... 84

Figure 37: Average operating and capital budgets for each of the functions per municipality ............ 87

Figure 38: Number of municipalities undertaking Local Functions ..................................................... 89

Figure 39: Number of municipalities performing local functions by province ....................................... 89

Figure 40: Average operating and capital budgets for each of the functions ...................................... 90

Figure 41: Average staff allocated to each of the functions ................................................................. 91

Figure 42: Performance of Schedule 4A and 5A functions by municipalities ..................................... 91

Figure 43: Provincial totals for the performance of Schedule 4A and 5A functions by municipalities 92

Figure 44: Performance of all functions ............................................................................................ 104

Figure 45: Performance of planning and economic functions ........................................................... 105

Figure 46: Performance of technical functions ................................................................................. 106

Figure 47: Performance of community functions .............................................................................. 107

Figure 48: Overall split of full time staff ............................................................................................. 107

Figure 49: Adequately skilled staff .................................................................................................... 108

Figure 50: Vacancies ........................................................................................................................ 109

Figure 51: Development and planning staff ...................................................................................... 112

Figure 52: Development planning population to staff ....................................................................... 114

Figure 53: Adequately skilled staff .................................................................................................... 114

Figure 54: Development and planning skilled staff ........................................................................... 115

Figure 55: Technical services staff ................................................................................................... 116

Figure 56: Technical services population by staff member ............................................................... 118

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Figure 57: Adequately skilled staff .................................................................................................... 119

Figure 58: Technical services skilled staff ........................................................................................ 119

Figure 59: Community services staff ................................................................................................ 120

Figure 60: Community services population to staff member ............................................................ 122

Figure 61: Adequately skilled staff – community services ................................................................ 123

Figure 62: Community services skilled staff ..................................................................................... 124

Figure 63: Differences between total number of functions performed across all municipalities and the

number with infrastructure ................................................................................................................. 125

Figure 64: Total capital and operational budget splits for 2017/18 ................................................... 129

Figure 65: Capital and Operating budgets – development and town planning services ................... 130

Figure 66: Capital and Operating budgets – technical services ....................................................... 131

Figure 67: Capital and Operating budgets – community services .................................................... 131

Figure 68: Summary of performance of function – Municipal abattoirs ............................................ 135

Figure 69: Summary of performance of function – Local Tourism .................................................... 136

Figure 70: Summary of performance of function – Municipal Airports .............................................. 137

Figure 71: Summary of performance of function – Municipal Planning ............................................ 139

Figure 72: Summary of performance of function – Air Pollution ....................................................... 140

Figure 73: Summary of performance of function – Building Regulations .......................................... 141

Figure 74: Summary of performance of function – Pontoons, ferries, jetties, piers, harbours .......... 142

Figure 75: Summary of performance of function – Trading Regulations .......................................... 143

Figure 76: Summary of performance of function – Beaches and Amusement Facilities .................. 144

Figure 77: Summary of performance of function – Billboards and Public Advertisements ............... 146

Figure 78: Summary of performance of function – Control of public nuisances ............................... 146

Figure 79: Summary of performance of function – Control of public liquor trading ........................... 147

Figure 80: Summary of performance of function – Facilities for care, burial of animals, pounds ..... 148

Figure 81: Summary of performance of function – Pounds .............................................................. 149

Figure 82: Summary of performance of function – Fencing and fences ........................................... 150

Figure 83: Summary of performance of function – Licensing of dogs .............................................. 151

Figure 84: Summary of performance of function – Licensing of public food trading ......................... 152

Figure 85: Summary of performance of function – Noise pollution ................................................... 153

Figure 86: Summary of performance of function – Street trading ..................................................... 154

Figure 87: Summary of performance of function – Environment and Nature Conservation ............. 155

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Figure 88: Summary of performance of function – Vehicle licensing ................................................ 156

Figure 89: Road length by road type and surface ............................................................................. 158

Figure 90: Summary of performance of function – Municipal roads ................................................. 158

Figure 91: Access to weekly refuse .................................................................................................. 160

Figure 92: Summary of performance– Refuse removal, refuse dumps and solid waste .................. 160

Figure 93: Summary of performance of function – Municipal public works ...................................... 161

Figure 94: Summary of performance of function – Municipal Public Transport ................................ 162

Figure 95: Access to electricity ......................................................................................................... 164

Figure 96: Summary of performance of function – Electricity Reticulation ....................................... 164

Figure 97: Access to potable water .................................................................................................. 166

Figure 98: Summary of performance of function – Potable Water Supply Systems ......................... 166

Figure 99: Access to flush toilets ...................................................................................................... 168

Figure 100: Summary of performance of function – Sanitation ........................................................ 168

Figure 101: Summary of performance of function – Storm Water Management Systems ............... 169

Figure 102: Summary of performance of function – Cleansing ........................................................ 170

Figure 103: Summary of performance of function – Street lighting .................................................. 170

Figure 104: Summary of performance of function – Traffic and parking ........................................... 171

Figure 105: Dwelling type ................................................................................................................. 173

Figure 106: Summary of performance of function – Housing ........................................................... 173

Figure 107: Summary of performance of function – Cemeteries, funeral parlours, crematoria ........ 174

Figure 108: Summary of performance of function – Firefighting Services ........................................ 176

Figure 109: Summary of performance of function – Markets ............................................................ 177

Figure 110: Summary of performance of function – Municipal Health Services ............................... 179

Figure 111: Summary of performance of function – Childcare facilities ........................................... 180

Figure 112: Summary of performance of function – Local amenities ............................................... 181

Figure 113: Summary of performance of function – Local sport facilities ......................................... 181

Figure 114: Summary of performance of function – Municipal Parks and Recreation ...................... 182

Figure 115: Summary of performance of function – Public places ................................................... 183

Figure 116: Summary of performance of function – Agriculture ....................................................... 184

Figure 117: Summary of performance of function – Disaster Management ..................................... 185

Figure 118: Summary of performance of function – Libraries ........................................................... 185

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Figure 119: Summary of performance of function – Traditional Authorities ...................................... 186

Figure 120: Summary of performance of function – Welfare ............................................................ 187

Figure 121: Summary of performance of function – Ambulance services ........................................ 187

Figure 122: Summary of performance of function – Museums other than national museums ......... 188

Figure 123: Summary of performance of function – Municipal police and security guards .............. 189

List of tables

Table 1: Section 139 interventions ..................................................................................................... 10

Table 2: Dysfunctional Municipalities .................................................................................................. 12

Table 3: Changes to Category B Municipalities .................................................................................. 31

Table 4: Summary of mergers and incorporations .............................................................................. 34

Table 5: Municipal Managers .............................................................................................................. 45

Table 6: Chief Financial Officers ......................................................................................................... 46

Table 7: Meetings held ....................................................................................................................... 65

Table 8: Ward committee meetings and average protests ................................................................. 67

Table 9: Free basic services ............................................................................................................... 68

Table 10: Compliance with policies .................................................................................................... 69

Table 11: Budgets ............................................................................................................................... 70

Table 12: Political leadership .............................................................................................................. 72

Table 13: Senior management ........................................................................................................... 74

Table 14: Staffing stability ................................................................................................................... 75

Table 15: Staffing competency ........................................................................................................... 76

Table 16: Professional associations ................................................................................................... 77

Table 17: MFMA Competency ............................................................................................................ 79

Table 18: Major trading services functions ......................................................................................... 83

Table 19: Ministerial Authorised functions performed by Local or District municipalities .................... 83

Table 20: Shared functions (MEC responsibility) ................................................................................ 85

Table 21: Number of municipalities undertaking shared functions (MEC responsibility) .................... 86

Table 22: Number of municipalities undertaking shared functions per province ................................ 86

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Table 23: Functions for MEC’s responsibility ...................................................................................... 87

Table 24: Municipalities administering Schedule 4A or 5A functions ................................................. 97

Table 25: Departmental groupings ................................................................................................... 100

Table 26: Staffing across sectors and provinces .............................................................................. 108

Table 27: Adequate levels of skilled staff ......................................................................................... 109

Table 28: Vacancies ......................................................................................................................... 110

Table 29: Staff allocation by province ............................................................................................... 112

Table 30: Technical services full time staff ....................................................................................... 116

Table 31: Community services staffing ............................................................................................. 121

Table 32: Capital and operating budgets .......................................................................................... 129

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Acronyms

AG Auditor-General

Capex Capital Expenditure

CEO Chief Executive Officer

CFO Chief Financial Officer

CoGTA Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs

CSP Cities Support Programme

DBSA Development Bank of Southern Africa

DCOG Department of Cooperative Governance

DHS Department of Human Settlements

DPME Department of Monitoring and Evaluation

DRDLR Department of Rural Development and Land Reform

DTI Department of Trade and Industry

DWS Department of Water and Sanitation

EC Eastern Cape

FBS Free Basic Services

FET Further Education and Training

FS Free State

GAU Gauteng

GDP Gross Domestic Product

HoD Head of Department

HIV Human Immunodeficiency Virus

ICT Information and Communication Technology

IDC Industrial Development Corporation

IDP Integrated Development Plan

ILO International Labour Organisation

IUDF Integrated Urban Development Framework

KZN KwaZulu-Natal

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LGSETA Local Government Sector Education Training Authority

LIM Limpopo

MDB Municipal Demarcation Board

MEC Member of the Executive Committee

MFIP Municipal Finance Improvement Programme

MFMA Municipal Finance Management Act

MIIF Municipal Infrastructure Investment Framework

MISA Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent

MM Municipal Manager

MPAC Municipal Performance Audit Committee

mSCOA Municipal Standard Chart of Accounts

MP Mpumalanga

NC Northern Cape

NDP National Development Plan

NEMA National Environmental Management Act

NT National Treasury

NUSP National Upgrading Support Programme

NW North West

OECD Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development

Opex Operating Expenditure

PGDP Provincial Growth and Development Plan

PIT Personal Income Tax

ppsk persons per square kilometre

RDLR Rural Development and Land Reform

RSA Republic of South Africa

SALGA South African Local Government Association

SANBI South African National Biodiversity Institute

SAPS South African Police Service

SARS South Africa Revenue Service

SDBIP Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan

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SDF Spatial Development Framework

SEZ Special Economic Zone

SIP Strategic Infrastructure Project

SPLUMA Spatial Planning and Land Use Management Act

Stats SA Statistics South Africa

TB Tuberculosis

TVET Technical and Vocational Education and Training

WC Western Cape

WSDP Water Service Development Plan

WWTW Wastewater Treatment Works

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1 Introduction and background

Governance is affected by the management and technical experience available in an

organisation. In South Africa, there is ‘unevenness in capacity that leads to uneven

performance in local, provincial and national government. This is caused by a complex

set of factors, including tensions in the political-administrative interface, instability of

the administrative leadership, skills deficits, the erosion of accountability and authority,

poor organisational design and low staff morale’1.

The Local Government: Municipal Structures Act makes provision in Section 85 for the

Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) to assess the capacity of municipalities and

through that provide advice to MECs when requested by MECs who are considering

changes to the existing division of powers and functions across District and Local

municipalities. The Minister of COGTA is assigned responsibilities for the allocating

the major trading services functions (water, sanitation, electricity) and health services.

The capacity of municipalities to perform functions is also to be considered by the MDB

when redetermining municipal boundaries.

The MDB has prepared numerous capacity assessments over the past decade, in

fulfilling its mandate to assess municipal capacity and make recommendations where

requested. More recently, these assessments have also included external

environmental or socio-economic drivers of capacity.

This project therefore aims to collect and analyse data and information on municipal

capacity to perform all municipal powers and functions as set out in Schedules 4 Part

B and 5 Part B of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. In addition, the

project addresses the MDB’s expanded scope of the municipal capacity assessments

to include an assessment of the governance and resource/environmental situation in

each municipality.

The overall aim here is to provide a national overview of the distribution of powers and

functions at a non-metropolitan level, including here an assessment of existing

capacity to execute these functions. These data provide a benchmark to better inform

1 2030 National Development Plan

2

particularly MECs on the overall shape of powers and functions across South Africa

so that if and when they request the MDB to provide advice on the possible division of

powers and functions they can do so information by the division of functions across

South Africa as a whole and within their province in particular.

In order to do this, the project has gathered as much information as possible to

examine the capacity of municipalities to perform their powers and functions, within

the environmental (economic, social, spatial, etc.) conditions in which they find

themselves. This includes information on:

1. Planning capacity, and particularly the role of district municipalities in terms of

the legal framework

2. Financial capacity: Evaluation of factors used and sources of revenue, including

challenges

3. Delivery capacity: Evaluating the division of powers and delivery of functions

relative to backlogs,

4. Administrative capacity, including ICT and human resource profiles

5. Geographical challenges.

The main intention guiding this work is for the MDB to develop a database with as

much information as possible which could be used for their own purposes as well as

to guide the three spheres of government in executing their responsibilities, from the

division of powers and functions (in the case of the Minister and MECs of COGTA) to

benchmarking across municipalities. It should also be noted that this report and the

study itself focusses primarily on category B and C municipalities as these

municipalities are where the division of powers and functions is found.

This national report therefore summarises these data and includes:

• Chapter 1: This provides the introduction.

• Chapter 2: A description of the methodology employed and challenges faced in

analysing the data which comes from municipalities and a number of national

studies by StatsSA, LGSETA, National Treasury and the like;

• Chapter 3: A summary review of the governance situation across municipalities

in South Africa;

• Chapter 4: A summary collation of the environmental assessments developed

for municipalities, reviewing the demographic and social context, the economic

3

context, land and human settlements, movement and transport, infrastructure

and service provision, and the environment.

• Chapter 5: A summary analysis of the 2011-2016 amalgamation of

municipalities, drawing largely on municipal responses and analysis;

• Chapter 6: A review of the Institutional arrangements at a municipal level;

• Chapter 7: A summary of individual capabilities in municipalities;

• Chapter 8: A summary of the existing division of Powers and Functions across

the country, comparing the location of these functions with municipalities across

South Africa; and

• Chapter 9: A summary of conclusions and recommendations.

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2 Methodology employed

2.1 Municipal questionnaire

The intention of the MDB is to create a database of municipal capacity information

which also contains within it data from other sources on broader

environmental/resource contexts. In order to do this, a questionnaire was formulated

so that such information could be gathered online.

The questionnaire covered three areas:

1. General information about the municipality: This includes contact details, its leadership, budget, services, administration and governance;

2. Senior management details: This section requests information on each of the senior managers;

3. Powers and functions: Information on which powers and functions are being performed by the municipality, and the capacity to do so.

Once the questionnaire was completed, the municipal manager submitted this to the

service provider. Data was checked, and queries were addressed with municipalities

where necessary. Information pertaining to the environmental situation of each

municipality was sourced from relevant government departments or national

organisations, such as Stats SA, National Treasury, CoGTA etc.

In June 2018, municipalities were asked to participate in this project. Information was

requested on the degree to which they are both performing their legislated and/or

assigned powers and functions, and the existing capacity and competencies in each

municipality. Provinces were also requested to assist in this process.

2.2 Additional data sources

A wide variety of municipal information was also sourced from organisations such as

Stats SA, SARS, LGSETA, National Treasury and the like. Some of these data were

used to prepopulate the questionnaire allowing municipalities to both verify the

5

information and/or update it. These data is also presented below in providing a

situational overview of each municipality.

2.3 Methodological Challenges

2.3.1 Methodological challenge 1: Municipal responsiveness

It was expected that these data could be collected over a

six week period, but, unfortunately, many municipalities

have failed to complete these data in spite of extensive

communications with municipalities: over 7000 calls

received and calls made to municipalities across South

Africa encouraging them and assisting where necessary,

with almost 2000 emails being sent to municipalities. In

addition, all Municipal Managers, Mayors and their offices

were contacted to improve response rates. MINMEC had

also resolved that COGTA departments should ensure

responses were completed by mid-October 2018. In

terms of this, on a weekly basis HoDs of COGTA in each

province have been contacted providing them with

updates and in some cases this has assisted in improving

response rates. Whilst some municipalities provided all

the information required, around 20% did not.

The adjacent figure provides an indication of the status of

completion by municipalities by their MIIF type and

Province.

The figure provides a breakdown across provinces and MIIF categories of the

percentage of municipalities which, some four months after being requested to do so,

had provided such information, had provided only limited information or had simply not

even started the process of providing such data. Appendix 1 provides the list of each

of these municipalities in the province and the status of responses.

The map below illustrates the state of submissions for local municipalities.

A B1 B2 B3 B4 C1 C2

0

20

40

60

80

100

Numberofmunicipalities

CompletionstatusbyMIIFtype

EasternCape

FreeState

Gauteng

KwaZulu-Natal

Lim

popo

Mpumalanga

NorthW

est

NorthernCape

WesternCape

0

10

20

30

40

50

Numberofmunicipalities

18%

35%

45%

33%

43%

41%

35%

32%

32%

27%

49% 48%

89%

45% 64%

23%

73%

CompletionstatusbyProvince

NotStart..

Started

Finished

Figure 1: Completion of MDB

capacity assessments by MIIF and

Province

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Figure 2: Map of submissions from local municipalities

In many cases, too, information provided was quite poor and significant efforts have

been made to try and verify these data using other secondary sources, such as from

StatsSA’s Non-Financial and Financial Censuses, National Treasury information, the

Community Surveys, LGSETA’s database and the like. In addition, all municipalities

have continually been asked to confirm/amend the information collated for their

municipality.

Using the data collected from municipalities, and including information from a variety

of secondary sources, draft reports were prepared and sent to each municipality,

requesting that they edit these data. Many municipalities have responded positively

and this will become an ongoing process as the MDB takes over the database and

continues to update it.

It should be noted that as these capacity assessments are ongoing, and in order to

improve responsiveness, a mechanism should be found to possibly link the provision

of information to the performance scorecards of Municipal Managers.

Statusofsubmissions

Finished

Started

NotStarted

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2.3.2 Methodological Challenge 2: Understanding Powers and Functions.

A second challenge arises from the Constitutional Schedule of allocated powers and

functions. Almost all municipalities have clearly shown that they do not organise their

service delivery in terms of an institutional framework which responds to all elements

contained in these schedules. Whilst it is easy for them to indicate if they have the

authority and/or perform major trading services like water, electricity, sanitation and

transport, they find it far more difficult to respond in cases like whether or not they

perform services like “Beaches and Amusement facilities”. Whilst not all municipalities

have beaches, even something like amusement facilities may cause confusion and as

will be shown in the section describing each individual power and function, in cases

like these the municipalities actual response rates is far lower, with many simply not

responding.

It is recommended that DCOG develop a framework which reviews the Powers and

Functions schedules and/or provides guidance for municipalities on how these should

be dealt with. This matter has recently become all the more important given that with

ongoing technological changes, it has become increasingly difficult to have a clear

understanding of where municipal powers and functions begin and end. This matter

has also become complicated as municipalities generate electricity from solid waste,

or they transmit energy, etc., all of which are not issues which could have been through

when the original division of powers and functions was contemplated.

2.3.3 Methodological challenge 3: Reconciling databases

A third challenge arises from the fact that there are existing records from key national

institutions which may well contradict the information provided by municipalities. For

example, StatSA now produce annually two censuses – the Financial Census and

Non-Financial census – and these contain information on particularly powers and

functions of the major trading services. National Treasury too is driving the mSCOA

process which ultimately will allow for comparisons across municipalities to be made.

This can be done even using existing budgets which shows income from trading

services and expenditure on major powers and functions.

8

Overall, it should be noted that in spite of an extension of time and considerable

request being made of municipalities, not all municipalities have responded on all

questions which amounted to over 2000 bits of information which needed to be

responded to. This non-responsiveness is in part due to the fact that municipalities

are often unable to disaggregate for each function exactly how many staff execute that

function and/or how much money is spent on Operational and Capital requirements to

execute each function. Caution must therefore be taken in interpreting the information

contained in the tables which follow, particularly in the subsections dealing with

information on powers and functions in particular.

It must be noted that the intention of the MDB in this process is to create a database

which will continually be updated as municipalities further refine their responses. This

report therefore focusses on the results from responding municipalities as at

December 2018, and on an ongoing basis these data will be updated. In tables which

follow, blank cells simply indicate that no information had at the end of December 2018

been provided on that matter.

2.4 Comparative analysis

Municipalities in South Africa are categorised as being either Category A (Metropolitan

Areas) or Category B (Local) within Category C (District) municipalities. Further

classifications have been provided such as the Municipal Infrastructure Investment

Framework (MIIF) classification. This divides Category B municipalities into four

groups largely representative of the larger ones that exercise more powers to smaller

ones, with fewer resources and exercising relatively few powers (B1 through B4).

Category C municipalities are divided into two groups based on those which are water

authorities and those which are not. Specifically, the MIIF classification for local and

district municipalities is as follows2:

• B1: Secondary cities: the 19 (9%) local municipalities with the largest budgets.

• B2: 26 (12%) municipalities with a large town as core.

• B3: 101 (49%) municipalities with relatively small populations and a significant

proportion of urban population but with no large town as core.

2 DBSA, MIIF 7

9

• B4: 59 (29%) Municipalities which are mainly rural with, at most, one or two

small towns in their area.

• C1: 23 (52%) of the district municipalities that are not water services providers

and generally have few service delivery functions.

• C2: 21 (38%) of the district municipalities that are water services providers and

often have substantial obligations.

For purposes of benchmarking of the municipalities in the following sections, the MIIF

classification provides a useful means of measuring the municipality’s characteristics

against other Category B/C municipalities.

Figure 3: Map of municipalities by MIIF type, and breakdown of municipalities per province by MIIF type

MunicipalitiesandProvincesbyMIIFtype

EasternCape

FreeState

Gauteng

KwaZulu-Natal

Limpopo

Mpumalanga

NorthWest

NorthernCape

WesternCape

0

10

20

30

40

50

Numberofmunicipalities

10

13

21

15

15

24

12

14

14

6

7

3

3

6

6

9

3

4

4

3

2

5 4

4 2 3

5 55

3

4 2

MIIFGroup

A

B1

B2

B3

B4

C1

C2

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3 The state of local governance

In terms of the Municipal Structures Act, “capacity” is defined as having reasonable

administrative, financial and human resources, and infrastructure to perform each of

the constitutional functions assigned to a municipality. In this context it also includes

leadership, governance and oversight capacity by councillors and senior management

of municipalities, and all municipal staff in general.

Over the past eighteen years, though, since the advent of democratic local

government, many municipalities have simply not been able to perform their functions

adequately. In the worst case scenario, Section 139 of the Constitution has had to be

invoked to bring in capacity to stabilise governance. In only the last seven years

nationally, for example, the following municipalities have had Section 139 invoked,

with some having had more than one intervention:

Table 1: Section 139 interventions

Province CODE Municipality

Eastern Cape EC104 Makana

Eastern Cape EC122 Mnquma

Eastern Cape EC123 Greater Kei

Eastern Cape EC133 Inkwanca

Eastern Cape EC139 Enoch Mgijima

Eastern Cape EC145 Walter Sisulu

Free State FS181 Masilonyana

Free State FS194 Maluti-a-Phofung

Free State FS205 Mafube

Free State FS284 Metsimaholo

Gauteng GT421 Emfuleni

KwaZulu-Natal

DC21 Ugu

KwaZulu-Natal

DC23 uThukela

KwaZulu-Natal

DC24 Umzinyathi

KwaZulu-Natal

DC27 Umkhanyakude

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN223 Mpofana

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN237 Imbabazane

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN238 Indaka

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN242 Nquthu

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN245 Umvoti

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN253 Emadlangeni

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN261 Edumbe

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN263 Abaqulusi

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN272 Jozini

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN275 Mtubatuba

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN436 Dr. Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma

KwaZulu-Natal

KZN437 Inkosi Langalibalele

Limpopo LIM361 Thabazimbi

Limpopo LIM367 Mogalakwena

Limpopo LIM368 Modimolle-Mookgopong

11

Mpumalanga MP312 Emalahleni

Mpumalanga MP325 Bushbuckridge

North West DC38 Ngaka Modiri Molema

North West NW372 Madibeng

North West NW374 Kgetleng-Rivier

North West NW382 Tswaing

North West NW383 Mahikeng

North West NW384 Ditsobotla

North West NW385 Ramotshere

North West NW392 Naledi

North West NW393 Mamusa

North West NW397 Kagisano Molopo

North West NW403 Matlosana

North West NW404 Maquassi Hills

North West NW405 JB Marks

Western Cape

WC041 Kannaland

Western Cape

WC045 Oudtshoorn

Figure 4: Map of Section 139 interventions

Of course, and often in addition to this, the measure used most commonly to measure

poor governance are the annually produced audit (financial and performance) results.

In the most recently available 2016/17 audit, the following are municipalities which

have either not been able to have their audits finalised, or which have also ended up

with adverse findings or disclaimers:

12

Figure 5: Map of adverse audits or disclaimers

The Minister of COGTA recently undertook a comprehensive analysis of the state of

local governance and identified 87 municipalities which are distressed or

dysfunctional, which require urgent intervention. These municipalities were

categorised in different ways as indicated in the following figures:

Table 2: Dysfunctional Municipalities by focus area

The intention of beginning the description of municipal capacity with a listing of

particularly challenged municipalities is in part to provide perspective on how much

still needs to be done to create the conditions under which normal, constitutionally-

defined local government should operate. Improving municipal capacity is not the

panacea to solving all the challenges facing local government. Poverty,

13

unemployment, corruption, poor leadership, lack of resources, the continuing effects

of racism and so many more factors also continue to bedevil the environment under

which developmental local government should operate.

At the same time, there are significant areas of challenge which municipalities must

address on an ongoing basis, including:

• Good financial management (and performance);

• Improving the capacity to plan, deliver, operate and maintain infrastructure;

• Improving the quality of infrastructure and nursing aged infrastructure;

• Addressing infrastructure carrying capacity;

• Providing effective infrastructure operations and maintenance.

Government spends over R2.5 billion per year on various forms of capacity building

and support for local government. This includes funds allocated through conditional

grants and other programmes. The non-grant programmes being implemented to

improve the capacity of municipalities to deliver services include:

• The work of the Municipal Infrastructure Support Agent in deploying skilled

technical personnel to municipalities, as well as providing training and systems

for planning infrastructure delivery and maintenance.

• The Municipal Finance Improvement Programme which deploys financial

management expertise to municipalities and the provincial treasuries

responsible for monitoring municipal budgets.

• The National Upgrading Support Programme under the Department of Human

Settlements, which assists municipalities to develop plans for informal

settlement upgrading.

• The Cities Support Programme managed by National Treasury which supports

metros to improve their planning and performance so that they are able to

deliver services in ways that optimise economic growth and reverse apartheid

spatial development patterns.

• The Integrated Urban Development Framework, which is led by the Department

of Cooperative Governance, provides a framework for managing urbanisation

and this is complemented by specific capacity support provided to intermediate

cities.

14

• Each sector department also provides support and advice to municipalities on

their specific sector. For example the Department of Water and Sanitation is

responsible for reviewing the Water Service Development Plan of every

municipality that is a water services authority.

The Inter-Ministerial Task Team on Service Delivery, which is chaired by the Minister

of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, was established to coordinate the

work of government in improving the capacity of municipalities to deliver services. It

consists of Ministers from the following Departments: COGTA; National Treasury;

Human Settlements; Energy; Water and Sanitation; Roads and Transport;

Environmental Affairs; Health; Basic Education; RDLR; DPME and Sports and

Recreation, as well as SALGA and DBSA. Their key focus is to monitor service

delivery across South Africa, and particularly in the 57 priority municipalities where

there is greatest developmental need and economic impact.

Across all municipalities, there are well over 20000 CAPEX projects totalling over R70

billion each financial year which are presently being implemented in these

municipalities.

These programmes of monitoring and support are primarily coordinated provincially

with provincial Departments of DCOG playing a major role in this regard. In the

sections which follow, the focus will be on describing the existing capacity in

municipalities to perform the powers and functions presently being exercised by local

government. An integrated approach will be taken to draw out the key dimensions of

capacity as noted by the MDB:

• Individual capacity: The technical, managerial, leadership and generic skills, knowledge, attitude and behaviour accumulated through forms of education,

training, experience, networks and values.

• Institutional capacity: The potential and competency found within the municipality, which includes human resource (combined individual capacities),

financial resources and governance, physical resources (infrastructure),

strategic leadership and planning, organisational purpose, orientation,

institutional memory, confidence, partnerships, powers and functions, policies

and regulations (by – laws), support systems, structures, operational processes

and systems (planning, designing, procurement, management, financing,

15

construction, documenting, reporting, implementation, performance

management systems, IT systems etc).

• Environmental/resource capacity: Environmental capacity refers to the environment and conditions necessary for establishing capacity at individual

and institutional level. It is these factors that often impacts on the performance

of municipalities. It includes factors such as technological, social, economic

(economic drivers), geographic, natural endowments (resources) and cultural

aspects etc.

In the sections which follow an overview of some of the key environmental/resource

issues is described.

16

4 Environmental situation

This section of the report focuses on the broader demographic/social, economic,

environmental, infrastructural and governance base of the country as a whole.

The information collected is drawn from the following sources:

• Stats SA:

o Census 2001 and 2011

o Non-Financial Census, 2016 and 2017

o Community and Household Surveys

o Financial Census, 2016 and 2017

o Other data such as National and Provincial GDPs etc., as indicated

below

• SARS:

o Personal tax data at a municipal level

• COGTA:

o Senior management

o Amalgamations

o IUDF

• National Treasury:

o S41 reports

o Mid-year and budget assessments where reports have been completed

o Financial Distress information

o State of Local government reports

o Infrastructure data

• Department of Environment:

o SANBI database on municipal environmental information

o Hazard and other Physical environmental databases

17

• Department of Water and Sanitation

o Blue Drop and Green Drop status where available

• Department of Agriculture and Forestry Affairs

o Land use evaluations

• Human Settlements

o Housing projects

o Building plans passed

• Justice and correctional services, Safety and Security

o SAPS crime statistics

o Police stations

• Transport

o Roads and other infrastructure

• Department of Basic Education and Dept of Higher Education:

o Matric results

o Examination centres

o Schools

o Learners and educators

o Universities and TVET colleges

o Distance to higher learning

o Graduates

• Local Government Sector Education Training Authority

o Skills profiles for municipalities

• Department of Rural Development and Land Reform and Department of

Traditional Affairs:

o Land claims

o Traditional communities

• DTI and IDC:

18

o SIPs

o SEZs

• Department of Minerals:

o Mining licences

o Operational mines

• Other sectoral surveys

In the subsections which follow, indicators developed from some of the data provided

in some of these reports is used to describe the broader national context.

19

4.1 Demographics and Social Context

The figure below shows how the national population is spread between the different

provinces and the breakdown of land area by each province.

Figure 6: Percentage of total population and land area per province

The diagram below indicates the average population growth rate of the different

provinces.3

The figure shows the average population growth rates and sex ratios across

municipalities. The sex ratio provides an indication of the gender breakdown in an

area, and it is suggestive of the composition of the labour force. Sex ratios will be

affected by sex-selective out-migration such as men migrating. Migrant labour-

receiving areas usually have higher sex ratio figures (i.e. more males to females) as

the migrants are usually male. South Africa’s average sex ratio is around 0,95, that is

95 men to 100 women. Lower sex ratios are found in areas with a higher number of

female-headed households, where household sizes are generally larger, with higher

dependency levels4.

3 Stats SA: Census 4 Demographics and Social; Stats SA: Census

0M 2M 4M 6M 8M 10M 12M 14M 16M

Population

0K 100K 200K 300K 400K

AreaKm

EasternCape

FreeState

Gauteng

KwaZulu-Natal

Limpopo

Mpumalanga

NorthWest

NorthernCape

WesternCape

12.57%

11.28%

24.08%

19.88%

10.42%

7.79%

6.74%

2.15%

5.09%

13.84%

10.63%

10.60%

30.54%

10.30%

6.27%

8.59%

7.73%

1.49%

Percentageoftotalpopulationandlandareaperprovince

20

Figure 7: Population growth and sex ratio

The population growth is illustrated spatially in the map below.

Figure 8: Map of population growth 2001 - 2011

The following figure further breaks down the population by race for each province. It

indicates the proportion of people of African origin, as well as other black South

Africans (people designated previously as Coloured and Indian) as well as people

previously designated as white. Given the history of apartheid, places with generally

higher proportions of minorities (such as whites) have been massively advantaged in

economic and other terms.

PopulationGrowth2001-2011

-37.6% 81.7%

Populationgrowth

21

Figure 9: Provincial Racial breakdown

4.2 Age structure

The distribution of the population by age is provided in the figure below.

Figure 10: Age breakdown per province

4.3 Household size and density

The relative size of households and the density of population are useful indicators of

human settlements and the extent to which municipalities need to respond to

challenges. This is particularly the case for relatively small households (1-2 persons)

and large (over 5 persons) households. Both provide challenges for municipal

planning and service delivery: small households hold out the possibility, if linked to

chain migration, that larger households will come into the municipalities once a

22

person’s employment becomes more stable, and larger households often place an

additional strain on the delivery of basic network services. In other words, these data

indicate the degree to which there could be migrancy operating, particularly in the

larger urban areas where one could find a higher proportion of 1-2 persons households

than in other areas. And likewise, larger households could also indicate a degree of

mutual aid existing not just for familial reasons, but to cope with the effects of apartheid

and unemployment.

The figure below provides information on the proportion of households consisting of

one or two persons; 3- 5 persons and households with more than five persons.

Figure 11: Household size

The figure below highlights population density for each province. Population density

is a measurement of the number of people living within a physical area. Examining

changes to populations living in different densities gives a sense of the change in the

municipality in terms of settlement patterns. The OECD has argued that a broad norm

on what is rural would be persons living in areas with density below 150 persons per

square kilometre (ppsk). For purposes of this analysis, three different density groups

have been defined:

• Those less than 500 ppsk (low density and rural);

• 500-1000 ppsk (medium density); and

23

• Over 1000 (very high) density.

Figure 12: Percentage population by density

4.4 Income and employment

Income levels per province are detailed in the figure below. Whilst this is normally

achieved by breaking the population up into quintiles of 20% of the population, given

the unequal distribution income in South Africa the use of quintiles will not show the

real gap between high and low earners. As a result, a wider range of income

distributions is used. The figure examines income distribution across the municipality,

through a number of categories of individual income being provided, such as those

households with5:

• No income;

• R1 - R19 600 income per annum;

• R19601-R614000 income per annum;

• > R614000 income per annum.

5 Stats SA

24

Figure 13: Household income

The form of employment is also an important indicator. Informal employment identifies

persons who are in precarious employment situations irrespective of whether or not

the entity for which they work is in the formal or informal sector. Persons in informal

employment therefore comprise all persons in the informal sector, employees in the

formal sector, and persons working in private households who do not get basic

benefits such as pension or medical aid contributions from their employer, and who do

not have a written contract of employment6.

The youth unemployment rate refers to unemployed youth, i.e. individuals aged 15 –

24 who are without work, actively seeking work in a recent past period (past four

weeks), and currently available for work. Discouraged workers or hidden unemployed

are not counted as unemployed or as part of the labour force. Not actively seeking

work refers to people who have not taken active steps to seek work (i.e. job searches,

interviews, informational meetings etc.) during a specified recent period (usually the

past four weeks).

Lastly, here, the unemployment rate is provided showing the number of unemployed

persons as a proportion of the number of persons currently active in the labour force.

Unemployment refers to individuals without work, who are actively seeking work in a

recent past period (past four weeks), and currently available for work. Persons who

did not look for work but have a future labour market stake (arrangements for a future

job start) are counted as unemployed7.

6 Stats SA 7 International Labour Organization

25

The following figure provides information on the average rates of the following across

municipalities, at a provincial and national level: formal to informal employment, the

unemployment rate, as well as the youth unemployment rate.

Figure 14: Employment and Unemployment

Income inequality can be measured in different ways. Two indicators have been

included in this analysis: the average rates of the following across municipalities, at a

provincial and national level: municipality’s dependency ratio and the Gini coefficient.

The dependency ratio is an age-population ratio of those not in the work

force (the dependent part) and those who are working (the productive part). It is used

to measure the pressure on the productive population. The Gini coefficient, on the

other hand, measures the degree of inequality in a set of data and is frequently used

as a method of measuring inequalities in income distribution in a population. The Gini

coefficient ranges from 0 (everyone has the same income) to 1 (one person has all the

income).

Figure 15: Dependency and inequality

26

4.5 Land Cover

The following figure provides a summary of the degree to which the land area of the

province is/has:

• Plantations

• Water bodies

• Mines

• Degraded

• Cultivated

• Built up

• Natural

Figure 16: Land cover

4.6 Education services

This section looks at education levels in the province. This includes a measure of the

level of education, the matric pass rate, and the percentage of the population in the

school-aged cohort, that are enrolled in some form of education.

27

4.6.1 Matric results and learners in school

The figure below details the average results across municipalities (by province) of the

final examination for Grade 12 learners in a school, which is to some degree indicative

of the quality of education within different institutions8. It also indicates the average

municipal percentage of the population in the school aged cohort (between and

including ages 5 – 18) who are currently enrolled in education (by province).

Figure 17: Matric pass rate and percentage of youth in school

4.6.1.1 Level of education (from no schooling to graduates)

The figure below provides a measure of the level of education described as a

percentage, for each education level including:

• No schooling

• Some schooling

• Complete primary

• Some secondary

• Matric

• Higher education

8 Department of Basic Education

28

Figure 18: Percentage population by level of education

29

5 Amalgamation of municipalities

5.1 Background to the municipal boundary redeterminations: 2011-2016

The Municipal Demarcation Act of 1998 requires a clear process to be undertaken in

demarcating and re-demarcating boundaries. Most importantly, municipal

demarcations must improve the economic, social, administrative and financial

sustainability of municipalities, bringing together people in geographical units so that

they can largely live, work, shop and play in the same municipal area.

In each case in which municipal boundaries are changed, whether it is a small

technical change to align cadastre with boundaries, to large-scale mergers, the

MDB must consider various legislated criteria (contained in Sections 24-25 of the

Act) to ensure their re-demarcation meets the objectives for local government as

laid down in the Constitution.

Major events in the demarcation of municipalities, in order to create a more

coherent, rational, non-racial and integrated system of municipal government with

municipalities encompassing single tax bases was created, with people living, working

and shopping in roughly the same municipality, can be summarised as follows:

• 1999: the MDB created six single-tier Category A Municipalities and divided the

rest of the country into Category C (District) and B (Local) municipalities.

o The number of municipalities was reduced from 843 to 284.

o The new system had six Category A (metropolitan) municipalities, 47

district municipalities and 231 local municipalities.

• 2008: the MDB commissioned a further investigation into metropolitan

municipalities with a view to categorising more Category A municipalities.

o Two additional Category A municipalities were designated for the 2011

elections: Buffalo City and Mangaung.

• 2011: A second set of more comprehensive redeterminations were completed

in time for the municipal elections.

30

o These included two larger mergers, including the amalgamation of

Metsweding District Council and Tshwane Metropolitan municipality

(and a few additional farms), as well as the merger of Kagisano Local

Municipality (NW391) with Molopo Local Municipality (NW395).

• 2016: In the most recent period of boundary redetermination, from 2011

culminating in the 2016 local government elections, the overall number of

municipalities was reduced from 278 to 257 municipalities, but with significant

changes made to many boundaries. In broad terms, the boundary changes in

this period can be classified as:

o No changes: where there were no changes to municipal boundaries;

o Slight changes: where the boundary change was not considered significant; and

o New or merged: where either a new municipality was created or two or more municipalities or major parts of a municipality were merged.

Today, the 257 municipalities consist of eight Category A, 205 Category B and 44

Category C municipalities. Some 22 of these new municipalities which came into

effect after the August 2016 elections, were newly merged municipalities, and another

74 municipalities had slight changes to the boundaries of the municipalities. Some 49

municipalities were involved in these 22 major mergers/incorporations.

The significant reduction in the number of municipalities between 2011 and 2016

resulted from two processes:

• Just under half of these mergers resulted from processes prior to 2013

where often MECs requested the MDB to consider creating more viable

municipalities and then

• In 2015 the remainder arose from the Minister of COGTA conducting an

assessment across the whole country on the functionality and viability of

municipalities. He invoked Section 22(2) of the Demarcation Act for a

redetermination of certain municipalities in the country.

In terms of the 2011 municipal boundaries, only 112 out of the 226 Category B

municipalities (the 2011 municipal boundaries) did not have their boundaries changed.

This meant that of the 114 municipalities that did change, some 72 had relatively small

changes made and the remaining 42 municipalities were reduced to only 21

31

municipalities (22 fewer municipalities and one new entity), through mergers or the

disestablishment of an existing municipality and its area partitioned off to other existing

municipalities.

The following table indicates the degree of change of category B municipal

boundaries.

Table 3: Changes to Category B Municipalities

Category by

Province

New Merged % Slight % None % Grand Total

EC 4 12,9 11 35,5 16 51,6 31

FS

0,0 5 27,8 13 72,2 18

GT 1 16,7

0,0 5 83,3 6

KZN 6 14,0 20 46,5 17 39,5 43

LIM 7 31,8 7 31,8 8 36,4 22

MP 1 5,9 3 17,6 13 76,5 17

NC 1 3,8 6 23,1 19 73,1 26

NW 1 5,6 13 72,2 4 22,2 18

WC

0,0 7 29,2 17 70,8 24

Grand Total 21 10,2 72 35,1 112 54,6 205

Overall, then, the redeterminations between 2011 and 2016 have led to:

• Disestablished municipalities: These are municipalities which have either

merged with others or been divided up and amalgamated with others;

• Unchanged municipalities: These are municipalities where there were no

changes made to their boundaries between 2011 and 2016;

• Slightly changed municipalities: These are municipalities which essentially

stayed as they were except for an area being gained or lost;

• New or merged municipalities: These are municipalities where there were

significant changes made either through two municipalities merging, or a

significant portion of one disestablished municipality being added to its area or

in the case of Collins Chabane municipality (LIM345), a completely new

municipality was created.

32

5.2 Municipal mergers: Before and after 2016 municipal elections

This section details some general points, drawn from an analysis of the 20

mergers/incorporations which occurred in the 2011-2016 period. Most importantly, the

analysis uses indicative data and aims to examine the degree to which the

municipalities/areas being merged are similar or different in terms of a number of

factors:

• Population size and land area changes;

• Settlement patterns, including degree of urbanisation and density;

• Governance arrangements, such as the change in number of voters per

councillor;

• Economic base, such as size, growth sectoral split and the like;

• Infrastructural needs;

• Financial viability;

• Annual audits;

• Capex; and

• Senior management, such as the degree of permanence of the Municipal

Manager and Chief Financial Officer.

These areas allow for a more complete understanding of what the implications of

mergers have been and what this means for the sort of challenges facing the newly

merged municipalities9. These data allowed for a quantitative understanding of what

the characteristics were of each of the municipalities which were being merged,

disestablished and/or incorporated.

9 Information draws largely on SALGA’s Demarcation Study, together with data from COGTA, Stats SA 2001 and 2011 Census, National Treasury’s State of Local Government Reports, Municipal budgets, StatsSA’s non-financial and financial censuses, AGSA reports, LGSETA’s sectoral skills reports and SARS personal income tax records.

33

5.2.1 Merging Populations And Area

At the outset it should be indicated that in all of the redemarcations the MDB considers

a complex set of factors and so there is not one or a few reasons for each

amalgamation. In many of the cases, it is clear that there were serious problems in at

least one of the affected municipalities in terms of overall governance, service delivery

and/or lack of an economic base. Very rarely were issues such as political

representation suggested as reasons for mergers even though in almost all mergers,

where a large municipality merged with a small one, the latter ended up having fewer

councillors than before.

Clearly, merging municipalities or incorporating major parts of one municipality into

another leads to potentially quite significant changes to the population and area to be

administered by the new municipality. Across the 20 municipalities being considered,

the changes ranged quite significantly. Many of the mergers are of municipalities

which are quite small in population terms but large in area terms. For example, Mier

has only just over 7000 people, but a land mass area of over 22000 square kilometres,

doubling the size in area of //Khara Heis, but only marginally increasing the population

of the newly merged Dawid Kruiper municipality.

In many cases, smaller rural areas are merged with larger (in population terms)

municipalities. Here, eThekwini and Umdoni have shared portions of the former

Vulamehlo municipality, Ray Nkonyeni merged with Ezinqoleni and uMhlathuze

combined with parts of Ntambanana.

Thirdly, a number of the municipalities are also losing population, possibly due to

migration and/or increasing urbanisation. This has meant that many smaller

municipalities, and particularly those without a rates base, have become even more

financially unviable. For example, both Nkonkobe and Nxuba have lost population

between 2001 and 2011 and they have been merged to form Raymond Mhlaba.

Finally, in some cases, more urbanised municipalities have been merged. The largest

such example includes the former Randfontein and Westonaria becoming Rand West

City and one also has the situation where Mookgopong and Modimolle have combined

in Limpopo. The following table indicates the population and area of the merged

municipality together with the area, population and population growth rate of the

previous municipalities. As may be seen around one-third of the former municipalities

34

had negative population growth rates, one-third had moderate growth rates and one-

third had medium- to high growth rates.

Table 4: Summary of mergers and incorporations

CURRENT PREVIOUS

B Enoch Mgijima EC139 250676 13584 Tsolwana EC132 6087 33281 2,29

Inkwanca EC133 3584 21971 8,53

Lukhanji EC134 3813 190723 4,91

B Walter Sisulu EC145 77463 13268 Maletswai EC143 4358 43800 17,40

Gariep EC144 8911 33677 7,55

A Mangaung MAN 775092 9886 Naledi (Fs) FS164 3424 24314 -11,52

Mangaung MAN 6284 747431 15,80

B Rand West City GT485 261022 1114 Randfontein GT482 475 149286 15,87

Westonaria GT483 640 111767 1,79

A eThekwini ETH 3476627 2555 eThekwini ETH 2292 3442361 11,40

B Umdoni KZN212 130403 993 Vulamehlo KZN211 960 77403 -6,70

Umdoni KZN212 252 78875 26,45

B Ray Nkonyeni KZN216 308657 1487 Ezinqoleni KZN215 648 52540 -4,08

Hibiscus Coast KZN216 839 256135 17,59

B Raymond Mhlaba

EC129 151341 6357 Nkonkobe EC127 3626 127115 -2,12

Nxuba EC128 2732 24264 -2,26

B Inkosi Langalibalele

KZN237 196195 3398 Umtshezi KZN234 1972 83153 38,39

Imbabazane KZN236 1426 113073 -6,26

B Alfred Duma KZN238 339736 3764 Emnambithi/ Ladysmith

KZN232 2965 237437 5,31

Indaka KZN233 992 103116 -9,26

B The New Big 5 Hlabisa

KZN276 107138 3466 The Big 5 False Bay KZN273 2121 35258 11,99

Hlabisa KZN274 1555 71925 3,83

B Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma

KZN436 110154 3601 Ingwe KZN431 1976 100548 -6,52

Kwa Sani KZN432 1852 12898 8,86

B Blouberg LIM351 175061 9539 Blouberg LIM351 9248 162629 -5,29

Aganang LIM352 1881 131164 -10,70

35

CURRENT PREVIOUS

B Molemole LIM353 126489 3627 Molemole LIM353 3347 108321 -1,02

B Polokwane LIM354 728468 5053 Polokwane LIM354 3766 628999 23,75

B Dawid Kruiper NC087 100495 44229 Mier NC081 22468 7003 -2,83

//Khara Hais NC083 21780 93494 19,99

B JB Marks NW405 219462 6397 Ventersdorp NW401 3764 56702 31,63

Tlokwe NW402 2674 162762 26,81

B Modimolle- Mookgopong

LIM368 104142 10366 Mookgopong LIM364 5689 35640 3,18

Modimolle LIM365 4678 68513 -0,74

B Fetakgomo-Greater Tubatse

LIM476 428891 5693 Fetakgomo LIM474 1105 93795 1,29

Greater Tubatse LIM475 4602 335676 24,51

B City of Mbombela

MP326 658559 7141 Mbombela MP322 5394 588794 23,46

Umjindi MP323 1745 69577 29,46

B Musina LIM341 104662 10346 Musina LIM341 7577 68359 73,90

B Thulamela LIM343 459849 2641 Mutale LIM342 3886 91870 10,83

B Makhado LIM344 401515 7604 Thulamela LIM343 5835 618462 6,36

B Collins Chabane

LIM345 328447 5002 Makhado LIM344 8300 516031 4,40

B Dr Beyers Naude

EC101 79277 28652 Camdeboo EC101 12422 50993 11,40

Ikwezi EC103 4563 10537 1,64

Baviaans EC107 11668 17761 5,11

B uMhlathuze KZN282 362776 1233 uMhlathuze KZN282 793 334459 15,65

Ntambanana KZN283 1083 74336 -12,31

What does appear to be quite common in all of these cases, is that mergers have

occurred between, on the one hand, quite small and sparsely populated municipalities,

but which on the other hand are contiguous to a larger, usually better resourced

municipality. This situation gets exacerbated with increasing urbanisation and de-

population of some rural areas. It should be noted, though, that there are no doubt

other contextual issues which have influenced such redemarcations, and in sub-

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sections below one finds poor governance and service delivery being found in at least

one of each of the merged municipalities. This undoubtedly influences the MDB in its

decision-making process.

5.2.2 Merging Settlement Realities

A second set of observations can be drawn through analysing the broad settlement

patterns contained in each of the municipalities involved in mergers, including:

o The degree of urbanisation: measured either in percentage terms (as built-

up area) or the area of high density (including average density in such areas

greater than 500 persons per square kilometre);

o The size of each municipal population as well as its population growth

between censuses.

Whilst each of the mergers had its own specific contexts to be dealt with by the MDB,

some of the general points to be drawn from this are as follows:

o The degree of urbanisation varied significantly between and within

municipalities being merged. For example, in the case of Maletswai and

Gariep, both were highly urbanised, whilst in the case of Fetakgomo and

Greater Tubatse both former municipalities were not urbanised at all.

However these differ with the cases of the highly urbanised eThekwini and

the less urbanised Umdoni taking over separate parts of the former very

rural Vulamehlo.

o The degree of urbanisation masks the fact that even in non-urbanised areas,

people live in relatively high densities. For example, the area (in square

kilometres) containing over 500 persons per square kilometre varies

markedly from The Big Five False Bay (0,11 sq. kms) and KwaSani (1,42

sq. kms) having small areas of high densities compared with eThekwini

having over 1160 square kilometres at such higher densities.

o The densities within such areas of high density also vary markedly across

all municipalities. Often such settlements are informal settlements in which

the demands for urban services end up being greater than in more settled

areas.

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These data again reinforce the fact that there was significant differentiation across

municipalities being merged. In many of the demarcations, surrounding municipalities

which are functionally linked to a larger more urbanised municipality have been

incorporated or merged into the larger municipality. As is indicated below, these larger

municipalities often have a gre