CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION AND OVERVIEW
5.2 SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
5.2.2 The involvement of traditional leaders in infrastructural development – the views of political
The findings discussed here are informed by the research objectives. Political leaders constitute the Council of municipalities. The council is made up of elected members who approve policies and by-laws for their area. Through the Council, political leaders decide on development plans and service delivery for their municipal area and pass budgets to the effect. For this reason, their views on traditional leaders were sought. The views by political leaders were deep and insightful.
Concerning the research objectives, participants’ views are summarised as follows.
• Political leaders apply policies and legislation in their inclusion of traditional leaders on matters of local government
Political leadership participants showed that they were aware of the legislation and policies for the involvement of communities on issues of local government, mentioning many actors including traditional leaders as part of local government stakeholders in Mbizana. The political leadership participants, particularly B01, gave an outline of local government as a sphere of government, indicating that it has a duty of coordinating stakeholders as guided by the Batho Pele principles. Legislations such as the Local Government Structures Act of 1998, which gives existence to various offices and outlines
their duties, the Local Government Systems Act 32 of 2000 and the Local Government Municipal Finance Management Act of 2003 were mentioned as guiding the rendering of services to the communities.
• Influence of traditional leaders on municipality’s Integrated Development Plan is minimal
The political leaders viewed traditional leaders as part of the general community and the municipality’s planning process does not specifically seek them out. The researcher noted that there was no direct role played by traditional leaders in prioritising the IDP as they could only influence processes through imbizos. When the municipal council plans for the integrated development plans, there are stages where officials and politicians go to the communities accompanied by other actors such as departments, business, and other formations for input from the communities on how best to prioritise and deliver the much-needed services. The public consultation meetings are called mayoral imbizos, which is where executive members detail plans by the municipality and the community then inputs on how best to shape the plans so that they talk to the needs of the communities. These are the platforms where all actors, including everyone interested and affected, gets to have their say; it is a very wide and robust platform of engagement with local government and departments on service delivery.
• Knowledge of cultural protocol in interacting with traditional leaders is lacking It was also noted that some councillors and administrators failed to learn of how to work with traditional leaders and to adhere to issues of punctuality when meeting traditional leadership and that this was viewed as lack of respect for traditional leaders. When meeting traditional leadership, it is argued that one must be early or honour the starting time if one was given. The attire must also be presentable and display a sense of respect and acknowledgement of the institution of traditional leadership. There are praises that males, including political leadership, need to sing whenever they enter the traditional institution as a sign of respect to the institution. If this is not done, it is regarded as disregard of the traditional leadership.
• Tension between communal land rights and mining rights
There is a difficulty in understanding which quarry is under the control of the department of public works (mining rights) and those under the control of traditional leadership
(communal land rights). There was a time when roads were under the department of public works and all maintenance was done internally before the legislation was changed in support of the tender system. This was before 1994 and some traditional leaders had given mining rights to the government for quarry. After seeing that there was a new democratically elected government, it is believed that some traditional leaders, though aware that they gave mining rights to the government, changed their tune, and wanted control over the quarry. It is an exercise that has proven to bear no fruits in Mbizana as the department of public works has tried to intervene to provide clarity but was not well received by the traditional leadership who told the departmental officials and local government that they will not be dictated to on their land. This has been the part where an interface continues to exist between the two actors.
• Need for a communication strategy
A system and communication strategy for actors had been revitalised by local government (council) to give meaning to issues facing communities in each ward and this strategy is called Operation Masiphathisane. The operation involves a multiplicity of actors from civic organisations, administrators of the different departments in government, traditional leaders etc. This program aims at having each department going to the community to provide answers for matters that are of interest. In this way, every member of the community has a chance to engage directly with the department or entity about their problems as community members. For example, some people have issues with the South African Social Security Agency (SASSA) on various issues; they then direct their questions to a senior official at the entity who would be part of the meeting taking place at ward level so that information and communication are enhanced.
• Need for a monitoring and evaluation strategy
Monitoring and evaluation of strategy have been advanced as a measure to determine whether the strategy brings desired outcomes. It would be a fruitless exercise to have the strategy revitalised without any plan of how to monitor and evaluate so that each millstone achieved be noted and if not achieved be reassessed. This plan is to make the strategy an everyday thing so that it talks to the intended issue of addressing rural issues.
This would greatly enhance communication to necessitate proper coordination of stakeholders in local government through their involvement.
5.2.3 The involvement of traditional leaders in infrastructural development – the views of