After years of prevarication, the Municipal Demarcation Board is at last addressing the matter of the so-called “aspirant metros”, the name given to the areas of Msunduzi, Mangaung and Buffalo City. Technically, by the way, the term is not ‘metropolitan’ at all, but Category A municipality of which there are six in the country at present. It seems that these areas will be given the full metro status provided the evidence is presented to show that they satisfy the appropriate criteria given in the Municipal Structures Act. The Act says:

“An area must have a single category A municipality if that area can reasonably be regarded as:

(a) a conurbation featuring: (i) areas of high population density; (ii) an intense movement of people, goods, services; (iii) extensive development; and (iv) multiple business districts and industrial areas;

(b) a centre of economic activity with a complex and diverse economy;

(c) a single area for which integrated development planning is desirable; and

(d) having strong interdependent social and economic linkages between its constituent units.”

Our Chamber believed in 2003 that these conditions were satisfied and was disappointed when our submission urging that the metropolitan status be granted was not even dignified by a reply. Now, nearly five years later, the case is even more pressing and, interestingly, some communities close to the capital city which were allocated to other municipalities at their own bidding, have now expressed support for returning to, or becoming part of the city’s fold. Perhaps they have realised after all, that whatever the deficiencies in the Msunduzi Municipality may be, there is advantage in a municipal entity of sustainable size.

For a long period, the issue that rankled about our municipal arrangement was that more than three-quarters of the levy income that accrued to the District Municipality was paid by employers in the city itself. Very little of that was spent to the benefit of the city, but what was worse was that so much of the balance appeared to be wasted. Established metros, by contrast, received all the levies into their own coffers and it is not difficult to appreciate just how much of a boon this was. To add to our frustrations, the city (ie the Msunduzi Municipality) was still supporting financially many facilities that should have fallen into the realm of district responsibility. The airport, the landfill site and the fire department are three examples of these, expensive facilities that have been sustained by the local municipality. The payment of these levies has now been scrapped, of course, so we are no longer so peeved about the loss of our businesses’ levy income, but we are very conscious of how much more development in the city might have been achieved had it had at least a sizable part of its fair share of extra income.

In a certain way, our area reflects a significant problem in the province as a whole. Excluding eThekweni, we have sixty grade B (fifty) and C (ten) municipalities in all serving a population of some five and a half million people. There are, therefore, sixty elected councils, sixty municipal structures, sixty mayors, sixty speakers and so on. Each of these has to draw up its own Integrated Development Plan on an annual basis. This defies common sense, for these cannot be integrated if there is such municipal fragmentation. Considering that over 50% of households in the province may be considered poor by virtue of their annual income being less than R18 000 pa, one can understand why so many of these municipalities are unsustainable.

The Mzunduzi Municipality is one of eight local municipalities that fall within the Umgungundlovu District. With a far larger budget, infinitely more capacity and its pivotal position as the economic hub of the area, the local municipality outstrips the district one in almost every way. In terms of the original theory which held that districts did not represent an additional tier of government, this didn’t matter too much. But when it became clear that districts were regarded as umbrella structures, rather than complementary spheres, and government began to work through districts alone to add weight to the recognition of an additional tier, it became untenable for both that the wrong one was the bigger and more powerful.

There is no doubt that the achievement of metro status for our city and its surrounding area will restore some logic to the demarcation. Economies of scale are no less relevant in the context of local government than they are in business. The Msunduzi Metro, or whatever it will be called, will reflect the development in our city and surrounds, the development along the N3 and, above all, bring about a much higher degree of integration within a region which is functionally united and is de facto a metropolitan area.

Andrew Layman: PCB CEO

This article appeared in The Mercury on the 23 April 2008