Cape Town - Parliament has backed Co-operative Governance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s decision to merge some of the country's less viable municipalities with strong municipalities to save the country millions of rands every year. The change would reduce the number of municipalities from 283 to just over 250.
Under the new proposal – which is still to be finalised after public hearings in all affected provinces – up to 30 municipalities in the Eastern Cape, North West, KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng and the Northern Cape would be merged with bigger and stronger municipalities.
The state stands to save a substantial chunk of the R4.4 billion allocated annually to these 30 municipalities when they are collapsed into others. The saving will be mainly on the salaries for top officials, including municipal managers and chief financial officers.
Municipal managers earn between R800 000 and R2 million per annum, depending on the size of the municipality.
Metro managers earn more than R1m on average, but some small municipalities also pay exorbitant packages. Finance managers are often in the same salary bracket.
Chairman of the portfolio committee on co-operative governance Richard Mdakane, an ANC MP, said the decision to collapse municipalities would lead to strong, properly functioning and effective local government.
But he would not be drawn on how much cash would be saved.
“We did not discuss rands and cents in terms of how much we will save but we know it’s going to be a lot.”
Municipalities have to have their own revenue streams and not solely rely on government to survive, said Mdakane.
Gordhan has proposed chopping nine municipalities in the Eastern Cape. The biggest of the nine municipalities to be scrapped is Ingquza Hill, with a population of 278 000, and the smallest is Ikwezi, with a population of just 10 000.
In Gauteng it’s proposed that Merafong, Randfontein and Westonaria be merged into a single metro. This would lead to the disappearance of the DA-ruled Midvaal municipality, a development that has led the party to accuse the ANC of gerrymandering.
In the Free State three municipalities deemed to be non-viable would be scrapped. These are Naledi, Tokologo and Phumelela municipalities – all small municipalities with a budget not exceeding R100 million each. The minister has also suggested that the municipalities of Kamiesberg, Siyancuma and Mier in the Northern Cape should be merged with stronger municipalities. In the North West, Ventersdorp, Greater Taung, Kagisano-Molapo and Moretele municipalities are on their way out as well. In KwaZulu-Natal Gordhan has proposed that the boundaries of traditional chiefs be aligned with certain municipalities and has identified a total of seven municipalities in that province to be collapsed into others.
Political Bureau