Policy Tracker: Southern Africa
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa enacts the Municipal Systems Amendment Bill of 2022 (Act No.3 of 2022) enabling improved functioning local government
The President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa on 16 August 2022 enacted legal provisions directed at improving the capacity and ethical standards of local government. This was done through the enactment of the Municipal Systems Amendment Bill of 2022 (Act No.3 of 2022). The Act is part of a suite of legislation meant to ensure effective and efficient functioning municipalities, and a professional local public administration. The bill, among others, set the way senior appointments will be made thus preventing high-ranking officials from holding political office in political parties.
According to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA, Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma, in a statement, the Amendment Bill, with corresponding provisions as the invalidated Act, was reintroduced to Parliament on 6 February 2019 in terms of the Joint Rules of Parliament. The Bill repeals the Amendment Act and has been properly tagged as a section 76 Bill to address the procedural defect referred to above. The Bill was approved by Parliament on 3 May 2022 with further amendments following comprehensive public participation processes at both national and provincial levels.
The law also enables municipalities to conduct recruitment searches nationally, in order to widen the pool of talent they can attract. According to the president, assented to the Local Government, the bill is part of building the capacity of the state at the level of government that has the most immediate impact on the way communities live. The new legislation is an important element of turning around the performance of local government, preventing the abuse of public resources and stamping out the sheltering of officials who move from municipality to municipality following wrongdoing.
Among some of its commendable interventions, the new legislation provides for the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs guidelines for making regulations which are related to the duties, remuneration, benefits and other terms and conditions of employment of municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers.
The legislative amendments bar municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers from holding political office in political parties. Political office entails the position of chairperson, deputy chairperson, secretary, deputy secretary or treasurer of a political party nationally or in any province, region or other area in which the party operates. Other political rights of senior managers are unaffected by the amendment and they remain entitled to enjoy and exercise these rights freely.
In other developments, the bill directs that any staff member of any municipality who has been dismissed for misconduct may only be re-employed in any municipality after the expiry of a prescribed period. Some of the provisions of Act 3 of 2022 include:
To make further provision for the appointment of municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers;
To provide for procedures and competency criteria for such appointments, and for the consequences of appointments made otherwise than in accordance with such procedures and criteria;
To determine timeframes within which performance agreements of municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers must be concluded;
To make further provision for the evaluation of the performance of municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers;
To require employment contracts and performance agreements of municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers to be consistent with the Act and any regulations made by the Minister;
To require all staff systems and procedures of a municipality to be consistent with uniform standards determined by the Minister by regulation;
To bar municipal managers and managers directly accountable to municipal managers from holding political office in political parties;
To regulate the employment of municipal employees who have been dismissed;
To South Africans this means a positive step in issues in the municipalities as the bill will surely help in a fair recruitment process. The amendments also show that the concerns of communities have been heard and been acted upon. As president Ramaphosa noted, “A capable, ethical state requires a strong foundation at local level, and the new law will go a long way to building communities’ confidence in local government and enabling stronger partnerships and cooperation between municipalities and the communities they serve.” But this will only be achieved if the bill is implemented in its broadest sense. However, the opportunities and advantages which the bill is bringing to South Africa cannot be underestimated.
Conclusively, the only real and meaningful change will have to come from political parties, political incumbents and senior administrators in local government for the benefit of South African citizens. The political arm of a municipality must determine the policy, strategy and by-laws of the municipality and oversee the administration. The administrative arm, led by the MM, must implement these policies, strategies and by-laws and account to the council and its committees. Both politicians and administrators must act with the necessary restraint, informed by their respective roles.
MALAWI
Malawi National Multi-Hazard Contingency Plan 2021-2022 prepares Malawi for future Disasters
Malawi in 2021 passed its 2021-2022 National Multi-Hazard Plan. This multi-hazard contingency plan was developed as a collaborative effort and consultative process under the guidance of the Department of Disaster Management Affairs. Just like any other countries in the globe, Malawi felt the impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic. The lessons learnt and the need to prepare for future pandemics and disasters, amongst other reasons, necessitated the development of this plan.
Malawi is prone to various disasters which include floods, dry spells, stormy rains, strong winds, hailstorms, landslides, earthquakes, pest infestations, disease outbreaks, fires and ad-hoc accidents. Inter-agency contingency planning is essential to ensure that humanitarian agencies/organizations in the country are ready to manage future uncertainty by developing responses to the likely disasters. Over the past five decades, Malawi has experienced approximately 19 major floods and seven droughts, with these events increasing in frequency, magnitude and scope over the years.
In early March 2019, heavy rains developed from a Tropical Depression that formed offshore central Mozambique known as Cyclone Idai. Heavy rains hit Malawi, causing severe flooding in the Southern and, to a lesser extent, Central Region of the country. These disaster events have had a significant impact on people’s lives, livelihoods and socioeconomic infrastructure in the affected areas, pushing a large number of people into poverty and food insecurity.
With these events following the floods in 2015 and the drought in 2016, the impact on the affected population has been cumulative. In the pre-disaster period, about 3.3 million people in the flood affected districts were already categorized as food insecure. In 2016/2017, the national poverty rate stood at 51.5 percent, with most of the poor (59.5 percent) living in rural areas. In Malawi, the level of inequality is high, with the Gini coefficient standing at 0.433 in 2017. Thus, disruptions to livelihoods resulting from natural disasters and other causes are likely to widen the gap between the poor and the well off.
To address these disasters Malawi faces, the multi-hazard contingency plan acts as a framework for resource mobilization for disaster preparedness, response and recovery activities, while local humanitarian organizations are guided by the National Contingency Plan (NCP) to set aside emergency funds in anticipation of disasters. The NCP lais out five prioritized anticipated hazards: floods; dry spells; disease outbreak; pest infestation; strong winds/stormy rains. All hazards considered within the contingency plan have three scenarios through which planning assumptions were developed.
These are the best-case scenario, moderate scenario and the worst-case scenario. After analysis of each scenario, the most likely scenario, ‘the moderate scenario’ for each hazard will be identified and planned for at national level. To the citizens of Malawi, this action plan is a step forward to ensure safety of citizens, saving lives in terms of disasters, and making it easy to prepare and to recover from disasters. Conclusively the NCP of Malawi has set guidelines that will ensure disaster preparedness if the action plan will be implemented effectively.
ZIMBABWE
Zimbabwe tackles Mental Health challenges through the Mental Health Strategy (2019-2023)
The Ministry of health and Child Care (MOHCC) of Zimbabwe launched a Mental Health strategy to cover the period 2019- 2023. This strategy came as a result of the need to tackle and promote early identification, treatment, rehabilitative and palliative services in non-communicable diseases (NCDs).
The mental health strategy is an effort by the Zimbabwean government together with stakeholders, to enable the country to fulfil the objectives of the National Health Strategy 2016-2020.The strategy was launched at a time when the country was faced by the need for a high demand for mental health services, particularly counselling of clients who suffered from post-traumatic stress disorders prior the 2019 Cyclone Idai which devastated the eastern provinces of the country. Moreover, Zimbabwe faces a lot of challenges of mental health due to the socio-economic hardships, high rise of unemployment to mention a few.
Against this backdrop, the Mental Health Strategy aims to improve mental care in Zimbabwe by improving the quality of mental health service delivery and patient care in line with international best practice; improving mental health awareness and empowering our communities; promoting research and development of locally relevant, innovative solutions to challenges in our mental health system; reviewing our legislation in line with current international guidelines and strengthening our human resources through training and skills development.
From 2019 to 2023 the strategy will target several high priority areas including improving quality of care in all mental health units; mhGAP training of non-specialist health workers to improve mental health care in primary care facilities; alcohol and substance use disorder treatment; community awareness of mental health issues as well as community participation in treatment. We hope through this strategic plan, to strengthen the mental health of our nation and improve the quality of life of many Zimbabweans affected by mental illness.
To Zimbabweans, this strategy is a positive move towards tackling mental health issues given the high rates of mental health patients in the country. This strategy through capacity building will also help to empower the communities in the management of mental health patients from the grassroots level to the national level. However, the effective implementation of the strategy will entail the tackling of mental health issues of Zimbabwe citizens