Bame Piet
3 July 2009
Parliament on Tuesday evening adopted a bill tabled by Minister of Local Government, Ambrose Masalila, to extend the term of office for council chairpersons and mayors from one year to two and half years.
It also sought to prohibit council employees from doubling as councillors.
But several Members of Parliament called for a complete overhaul of the local government system to give more authority to both chairpersons and mayors to make them more accountable.
During the debate, the minister revealed that the Attorney General's Chambers was working on a law that will overhaul the way local government operates.
Before the bill was passed, Specially Elected MP, Botsalo Ntuane, said that the current system is flawed because there is no accountability at all. He said that as MPs they always encounter difficulties when people raise complaints about dead streetlights, potholes, leaking classrooms, broken windows, rubbish in the streets and dead dogs on roadsides.
He said when they try to take the complaints to the council they are sent from pillar to post because there is no person who deals with all these. He said even councillors sometimes find themselves not knowing what to do.
He said that the minister should come up with a comprehensive bill that will deal with all these problems and make someone accountable. "We need to bring in reforms to give council chairpersons and mayors power and authority to deal with issues. For as long as they remain disempowered, these problems will stay," he cautioned. The MP said that the current system gives them the status of officiating at ceremonies and nothing more.
"We need to do away with these ceremonial council chairpersons and mayors. They need substantive roles and the reforms are long overdue. He stressed the importance of devolving power to the local authorities if government is serious about improving service delivery.
Like other MPs, he believes that the other important thing is attractive salaries for councillors in order to attract professionals. He said government should de-link council seats from both the civil service and the private sector and that it should be a fulltime job.
He added that with good salaries there would be less corruption at councils as is the case at the moment. The MP also urged government to provide official residences for council chairpersons and mayors so that they can host foreign dignitaries in those homes when the need arises.
MP for Letlhakeng West, Filbert Nagafela, also supported the bill but said that there are many cases where some council employees lie to unsuspecting rural people. He cited cases where a driver of a water bowser would use his position to campaign for a council seat either by denying some the resource to favour others or claiming that he even popped out some money to get the water. Surprisingly, Minister for Communications, Science and Technology, Pelonomi Venson-Moitoi interjected saying that people should not use public resources for their political campaigns.
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