GISTEXT USER GROUPS
D) PROCESSES
6. KPA 5: GOOD GOVERNANCE AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION
6.3 Organisational Performance
Performance Management fulfils the implementation of the Integrated Development Plan and is measured and reported on a monthly, quarterly and annual basis. The targets of the Municipality as reflected in the IDP find expression in Institutional Scorecard and Service Delivery and Budget Implementation Plan(SDBIP).SDBIP forms the basis for Directorate Scorecard, Performance Plans of section 57 managers and hold them accountable. The performance of an organization is integrally linked to that of its staff. It is critical and important for any organization to periodically review its own performance as well as that of its employees to flag areas that need attention and to understand how well or bad the organization or individuals are doing.. In order to comply with legislation and to improve on good governance and service delivery it is essential for municipality to adopt a policy on Institutional and individual performance management. On the 28 August 2007 Council approved Framework for Institutional Performance Management and the reviewed on 27 September 2011. The Framework contains an annual work plan with processes to be followed in developing and implementing Performance Management.
Performance Management is a strategic approach through which the performance objectives of the Municipality are identified, defined, translated into business plans and cascaded into individual scorecards allowing for regular planning, monitoring, evaluating and reviewing of performance at both organizational and individual levels, effectively responding to inadequate performance and recognizing outstanding performance.
(a) Some Institutional Challenges
Challenges encountered in relation to organisational performance relate to the following:
Non involvement of communities in setting of key performance indicators.
Lack of integration between formal reporting and reporting to communities, e.g. performance is reported quarterly in addition to that, political leadership should also report to communities regularly on municipal performance.
Lack of integrated municipal planning and reporting on basic services
Managing change process in IDP/PMS to be perceived as a line function responsibility
Managing and reporting Service Provider’s performance is still a challenge 6.4 Public Participation
The goal of the Buffalo City Metro on Good Governance and Public Participation is to realize a viable and caring institution that will promote and support a consultative and participatory local government. Good governance is in the main a participatory, transparent, democratic and accountable system of governance.
Developmental local government legislation put in place mechanisms for community interface so as to create enablers to realize good governance within a municipality. The key focal area within good governance is that good governance is a responsibility of all service delivery directorates / units and as such must find a concrete expression in their operational plans. The strategic intent of good governance and public participation is to ensure that BC Metro is accessible to its citizens. This is in keeping with the current municipal vision “A responsive, people-centred and developmental City”.
(a) Mechanisms to promote a culture of community participation
In terms of Section 43 of the Municipal Structures Act, a municipality through appropriate mechanisms, processes and procedures must involve the local community in the development, implementation and review of the Municipality’s management system. The Metro shall strive to build a strong leadership, with clear vision, maximum participation by the community, the private sector and all stakeholders to meet the basic needs of all and build a solid foundation for growth and lasting prosperity”.
Buffalo City Metro has within its realm of development established different platforms to enhance participatory local governance.
(b) Involving our communities
The National draft policy guideline on public participation details the following basic assumptions of public participation:
o Public participation is designed to promote the values of good governance and human rights;
o Public participation acknowledges a fundamental right of all people to participate in the governance system;
o Public participation is designed to narrow the social distance between the electorate and elected institutions. (c) Mechanisms in brief
Table B26
Requirement Tools Example
‘Inform’ Ward Committees These are critical platforms or organs of peoples power our communities use to interface with their municipality. Informing the community of council decisions, community rights and duties, municipal affairs etc.
Community informing ward councillor of their concerns.
Public meeting or imbizo Informing the community of council decisions, community rights and duties, municipal affairs etc.
Community informing councillors and officials of their issues that concerns its inhabitants.
Council meetings open to public Informing the community of council decisions, community rights and duties, municipal affairs etc.
Annual report Informing the community of municipal activities Surveys Informing the municipality of the needs of a local
ward, or of the levels of satisfaction with the delivery of a service like electricity.
Newsletter Informing the community of council decisions and municipal affairs.
Posters, loudhailers, banners, email notification, media adverts
Inform public of an event or meeting, eg council meeting or imbizo
Access to Information Act Manual Communities and stakeholders are allowed by law to access information.
State of the City Address The Executive Mayor outlines the programme for the year and how our communities can track municipal service delivery programmes
Community Development Workers whose key task is to improve service delivery, accessibility and to ensure that there’s constant interaction between government and communities IDP Stakeholder / Rep forum Municipality involves stakeholders in the IDP, Budget,
Performance management system, performance assessment and service delivery agreements processes.
6.5Special Programmes Vulnerable Groups (Cross-Cutting Issues)
The Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM) has acknowledged that social, political and economic
localities and it is this very phenomena of complex and diversified economies which places increased burdens on the metro and worsens the plight of the marginalized within society.
Of specific concern to the metro are those vulnerable groups within communities who are most often marginalized or excluded from the mainstream economy and to this end within the Integrated Development Plan; HIV and AIDS, Gender, Disability, Older Persons, Youth and Children are deemed as Special Programmes Vulnerable Groups (Cross-Cutting issues). Additional Local Agenda 21 cross-cutting issues include poverty and the environment.
Each of the Special Programmes Focal Areas has a dedicated BC Metro Strategy which has common priority areas related to mainstreaming, decreasing vulnerability, access to basic services, public participation in municipal processes and moral regeneration.
During the FY11/12 the metro’s Women’s, Youth, Disability and Older Persons Forums along with the Women’s Caucus and Metro AIDS Council will seek to ensure mainstreaming and participation of vulnerable groups within metro planning processes.
Notwithstanding the targets set by the 8 Millennium Development Goals and the 12 Outcomes of Local Government which address vulnerability through poverty, food security, environmental protection, educational outcomes, gender inequalities, health outcomes and access to services, the UNDP recommends the localization of indicators so that these are applicable to the local authority and are monitored on a regular basis.
6.5.1 Reducing Vulnerability through Mainstreaming Special Programmes Cross-Cutting Issues
Mainstreaming seeks to firstly address and redress the challenges faced by marginalized groups in terms of their susceptibility or becoming at risk or negatively impacted on due to various factors namely; biological (access to clean water, sanitation and health services), behavioral (gender inequality) and social factors (unsafe housing / inadequate environmental lighting place children and women at risk of social violence.
Secondly, mainstreaming focuses on vulnerability namely, the consequences and results of being for instance HIV infected, the ability of child headed households, indigents and those living in abject poverty to access livelihood assets and support from the state and other agencies.
Implementing and documenting practical IDP mainstreaming remains a challenge which that clusters grapple in that firstly; how the cross-cutting issues are impacted on by their municipal service delivery and secondly;
how the cross-cutting issues impact on their directorates’ delivering of municipal services. Last but not least, each directorate needs to undertake a situational analysis and asses as to where they have a comparative advantage in relation to expanding the positive impacts of their core business and eliminating or mitigating any negative impacts thereof in relation to the cross-cutting issues.
The metro is committed to investing in the community’s human capital skills base through creating economic growth, income generation, reducing unemployment and improving the quality of life of inhabitants. The 2010 Eastern Cape matric pass rate of 59% was lower than the SA rate of 68%. Just over 1/3 of the metro’s population are employed with 80% earning less than R1600 pm thereby increasing the sensitiveness of vulnerable groups to economic fluctuations. Currently 32% of the potential ratepayers are indigent. Within the metro 65% of the unemployed population is younger than 29 years and less than 2% possess a university degree. The metro has 3 Youth Advisory Centers which offer career guidance, job marketing skills and entrepreneurial opportunities to youth. The BC Metro Bursary Fund provides assistance to deserving youth pursuing scarce skills qualifications. It has been documented that the metro has a greater ability (in comparison to the Eastern Cape Province), to provide access to employment, health care, education and basic services.
Vulnerability reduction of marginalized groups e.g. persons with disabilities, women, children and the older person especially in the rural areas through addressing basic household services’ health needs and service delivery backlogs coupled with meaningful participation of these groups within their communities and government processes, addresses gender inequality and reduces poverty. Women are proportionally more likely to be poorer than their male counterparts whilst children are the most vulnerable to poverty and its cycle of hunger, illiteracy, school dropouts, crime early sexual debuts, teenage pregnancy and HIV infection. The SA HIV infection prevalence rate has escalated from 5.3 million in 2009 to 5.575 million in 2010. More than half of those HIV infections were adult females with the number of infected children escalating from 334 00 in 2009 to 518 000 in 2010. The already high levels of poverty and rising Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC) population exacerbate and place additional strain on the metro’s resources as the demand for service delivery and indigent benefits increases and the inversely proportional ability to generate revenue decreases. It is estimated that approximately 2 million orphans have lost either one or both parents to AIDS and the average life expectancy of South Africans has diminished to less than 50 years with a resulted decrease in the labour force of 21%,
Last but not least, development and service delivery must be counter balanced with sustainability of the natural environment and to this end; the metro will strive for the promotion of spatial integration, social development, justice, equity, economic prosperity and local democracy through the provision of affordable and efficient services.
HIV and AIDS is synonymous with vulnerability and it is estimated that almost half of the countries HIV+
population is concentrated within the 9 metropolitan areas with the majority of infections within the urban precincts. There are clear linkages between informal housing increasing vulnerability to HIV infection versus that of formal human settlements. The pandemic continues to exacerbate the levels of poverty, unemployment, informal housing/ slums, low economic growth, low education, decreased skills levels and reduced human capital. HIV and AIDS remains a large and growing threat to the metro’s development trajectory which can only be addressed through addressing HIV through integrated and strategic human settlement initiatives.
According to Census 2001, approximately 5% of Buffalo City’s population lives with disabilities. Obtaining updated statistics in relation to the disabled community within the metro remains a challenge due to stigma and non access to facilities and services by this community.
The metro has a growing vulnerable older person’s population which is projected to increase from 8% to 10, 5% by 2015.
For the metro to be sustainable, mainstreaming of the MDGs and 12 Outcomes of Local Government should be viewed or understood as being within the core business of each of the metro’s service delivery units.