Each ward within the Drakenstein Municipality (DM) consists of a ward councillor, employed by the DM to represent the interests of a specific community by ensuring local issues and concerns are heard and addressed. Simply put, they act as a link between the municipality and its residents. In this article Paarl Post delves deeper into the services they provide.
According to Koos le Roux, the municipality’s Speaker, there are currently 33 ward councillors, of whom 26 are from the DA and seven from the ANC with a remuneration package of roughly R360 000 per year, or R30 000 per month.
The South African Local Government Association’s (Salga) handbook for municipal councillors, which the DM referred Paarl Post to, stipulates that “a councillor’s role is not an easy one and will demand expertise and knowledge about the local-government system and municipal environment.”
Important aspects of a councillor’s mandate, according to Salga, include:
• Acting as the representative of the community they serve;
• providing leadership roles in the council;
• acting as custodians or guardians of public finances;
• carrying the cooperative governance ethos;
• providing effective oversight over the municipal executive and council officials; and
• accounting and being responsive to the committees they serve.
Critical to all these requirements, according to Salga, is that ward councillors improve the lives of citizens.
“The improvement of the peoples’ lives can be achieved through the provision of basic services, development and growth of the economy, recognising and harnessing the skills potential of people living in the municipality, mobilising the people to make their own contribution to improving their living conditions and job creation.”
Additional questions asked by the newspaper that remain unanswered by the DM include:
• What types of community issues can members of the public contact councillors about;
• Which tasks must ward councillors complete on a monthly basis as part of the municipality’s guidelines or Key Performance Indicators (KPIs); and
• what is the DM’s process for removing a councillor if they fail to perform their duties?
According to Thobani Booi, an ANC ward councillor for New Rest and a resident of the area, the role of a ward councillor extends beyond assisting residents.
It also involves serving as the “eyes and ears” of the community and working collaboratively with stakeholders such as the local police, to identify and address the challenges the community faces.
Booi explained issues a New Rest resident experiences daily include crime and unemployment.
To combat this, he said, he holds quarterly meetings with the local police and neighbourhood watch to dicuss crime statistics, patterns and solutions.
Unemployment in New Rest, as with the rest of South Africa, is a continious challenge, which Booi addresses by collecting “job forms” from the DM offices, sparing a trip to town for unemployed residents and enabling them to make a bid for employment.
His additional duties include collaborating with various non-profit oganisations to uplift the youth.
