Unfortunately, these are not only "incidents". They affect the lives of people, real people, who want clean water, who do not want their children to jump over puddles of raw sewage on their way to school. They are people who voted for a better life.
Much of what is debated in this House is only of academic interest to people in local communities. But the impact of bankrupt and corrupt local councils, where incompetent officials and councillors fail to deliver basic services, affects them directly and on a daily basis.
The failure of local government, however, does not only manifest itself in remote rural villages. In the Johannesburg Metro, hon Minister, a consumer, Ms Mapule Matshine, has just received a notice from Johannesburg's ANC administration, demanding payment of R1,5 million in electricity arrears. Although weird and wonderful accounts are the order of the day in the notorious Johannesburg billing fiasco, this case is unusual.
In this case, Ms Matshine lives in a modest RDP house in Cosmo City, where she has a prepaid meter installed. Yet the fat-cat administrators of Braamfontein are now harassing her for payment of R1,5 million for outstanding electricity consumption.
Similar anecdotes of local government failures arise throughout South Africa, and even the staunchest ANC loyalist cannot but admit that local government has sunk beyond crisis stations - it is becoming a fully fledged national disaster.
Auditor-General Terence Nombembe stated publicly, and the previous speaker referred to the fact - it is interesting that the hon Minister did not - that the Auditor-General's findings of financial mismanagement and incompetence are not taken seriously by those who need to do something about it. He said his office would soon release the latest audit results for local municipalities. He expressed his dismay, and I quote: "The people voted into power were slow in taking responsibility for what they had been voted in for."
The quote that hon Steenhuisen referred to was:
The accountability for the results is not taken as seriously as it should be. Bad results are regarded as the norm ... Little happens to them to show that this is unacceptable. This is the culture that we all need to be concerned about.
Is this government serious about improving administrative and financial management standards? That is the question.
HON MEMBERS: Yes!