Public Protector Advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane says the country should put more money into local government compared to national and provincial spheres.
She was addressing a conference at the University of Zululand, in Mtubatuba, northern KwaZulu-Natal.
Mkhwebane says the country needs to capacitate local government to provide services to their communities.
“This Constitution that we have is encompassing, addressing the needs of the people who at the grassroots level. Is it taking issue of social justice seriously, issues of access to land and access to the economy? I think we need to go back and research. We have national and provincial governments dealing with policy issues, having budget instead of capacitating local government, funding local municipalities instead of capacitating national and provincial. I think we need to change the systemic challenge as a country,” says Mkhwebane.
PP: You find that local sphere of government, which is at the coal face of service delivery, is not funded and has to rely on grants and revenue collected from ratepayers while the national and provincial administrations, which are largely about policy, are handsomely funded.
— Public Protector SA (@PublicProtector) October 23, 2019
