Skip to main content
The function of municipalities.


The lowest level of state power is the municipality. Municipalities come in different sizes, but their ultimate responsibility is to supply the basic services on a local level. Larger metropolitan municipalities are huge organisations employing thousands of people and they can undertake big capital projects. There is not that much interaction between the municipality - also called the City Council - and the citizens.

In smallest municipalities, also called Town Councils,  that link is much more direct and people often know some, or all the members of the council. They can react quickly to needs of the community, and the community can organise to remove them from the Council. However, the biggest problem for these smaller Councils is finances. They have a limited ability to collect taxes, called property tax. Property tax is calculated on the value of the building and paid by the owner of the building.

Basically their main function is to provide water, electricity and sanitary service to the town. In South Africa none of these services are privatised. In most cases they are  not very efficient as the lack the skills to deliver a professional job. This is more serious in the smaller municipalities and electricity distribution is often undertaken by the national electricity supplier, ESKOM. The municipalities would charge each household and they would pay ESKOM. They have a small profit on this sale.

Municipalities send accounts to all the registered property occupants, not the owner. If the property is unoccupied, the owner becomes responsible.

Sanitation services, including sewerage and refuse removal are also performed by the Councils. Municipalities also issue vehicle licenses and approve home building plans. They employ health inspectors to look after public safety and run basic preventative medical services such as TB prevention as well as family planning services.

Bigger municipalities also employ municipal police. They are used to enforce traffic regulations such as speed control of vehicles. These police work closely with the South African Police in crime prevention. They have the right to arrest people but when they have made the arrest, the SAPS takes over the case.

Municipalities are not involved in the education system and do not run schools. They are, however, responsible for the normal supply of services to schools.

Another function that municipalities have is the control of stray animals. Unlike Chile, there are no street dogs in South Africa. Dogs that are alone in the street are caught and, unless claimed by their owners who then have to pay a fine, they are euthanized. Larger animals such as cows or horses are sold to offset cost.

Clearly municipalities in Chile are very different from those in South Africa.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Geography of South Africa South Africa is located at the southern end of Africa (How surprising!). This location was pivotal in the development of the country. In the 17 th century the Netherlands became the dominant naval power in Europe. At that time Spain and Portugal were well entrenched in the New World as the Americas were known. Instead if risking another war with Spain, the Dutch decided to go to the East. Parts of India, Malaysia, Indonesia and even China became Dutch colonies. Because the sea journey from Europe to the East was so long, they decided to send some farmers to the Cape of Good Hope to begin a supply station of fresh produce for Dutch ships. There was never really an attempt to colonise the area as its value was determined to be low. However, we shall revisit this a little later. The country can be divided into various climate zones. The blue at the bottom has a Mediterranean climate (wet winters, dry summers). The population densi...
Post a Comment
Read more

Devolution of Power

Power is vested in the parliament. It can appoint and remove the president. It can make, change or repeal laws. However, it cannot make laws that are outside the constitution. If it did that, the Constitutional Court can declare the law unconstitutional and thus void.  With a 66% vote parliament can change the constitution. Some power is devolved to the Provinces. These powers are generally not described in detail in the constitution, only the provisions under which parliament grants them powers. The constitution does give the provinces power in the National Council of Provinces. This is the equivalent to the Senate in Chile. Each province has 10 representatives, including the premier minister of the province. Provinces do have some taxation roles which is more in line with a federal system than a unitary system. They also have the power to oversee the municipalities in their provinces and even to suspend a municipality when they are not acting in the best interests of th...
Post a Comment
Read more
A short history of South Africa Usually, when people think of the history of South Africa, they start at the point where the Europeans arrived. However, there is another story that is as old as humanity itself. The cradle of humanity was probably at and around the Sterkfontein caves just west of Johannesburg. There the skull of Mrs. Pless, an Austrlopithicus africanus (dating to about 2 million years ago), was discovered by Dr Broom and his team in 1947. This is perhaps the most famous skull in the world! Then there is the much more recent species homo Naledi (about 300 000 years ago) from the same area. Their descendants are the Khoisan people. They were hunter-gatherers that moved with the seasons following migrations of wild animals across the country and they left examples of their rock art all over southern Africa. About 1500 years ago the Bantu people, who were migrating south from West- and Central Africa, arrived in what is now South Africa. They were farm...
Post a Comment
Read more