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Outcomes of the latest local government audit a predictable surprise

02 September 2024 Photo Supplied

Opinion article by Dr Harlan Cloete, Centre for Gender and Africa Studies, University of the Free State.

In the 2022-2023 Local Government Audit, the Auditor-General (AG) notes inadequate skills and capacity, a culture of no accountability and consequence, together with governance failures, as the main weaknesses impeding progress in municipalities. But this is not new, we have heard this before. A predictable surprise, argues Michael Watkins, Canadian-born author of books on leadership and negotiation, arises out of failures of recognition, prioritisation, or mobilisation – when leaders inevitably had all the information about an imminent disaster but failed to act.

In April 2024 the University of the Free State (UFS) handed over a report commissioned by the Local Government Sector Education and Training Authority (LGSeta) titled: “An evidence based human resource development (HRD) assessment to measure and manage its implementation in South African municipalities”.

HRD not effectively measured and managed

This was not smooth sailing, and it was a mission to convince municipalities to participate, as expressed by one official. “Good morning Dr Cloete. I am glad that you are finding a breakthrough elsewhere. Unfortunately, where I am, politics and laziness have been the biggest stumbling blocks. I have even tried to convince them to invite you to our next steering committee meeting and I was told to wait. It just shows these people do not care about improving and changing the status quo through this collaboration. I am just sad.”

Drawing from the responses of a research sample of 572 participants (managers, non-managers and HRD professionals) in 17 municipalities across five provinces, the report concluded that HRD is not being effectively measured and managed, despite a 26-year-old enabling policy framework (Skills Development Act, 1998 and the Employment Equity Act, 1998). The evidence points to a lack of understanding, application and integration of evidenced-based HRD, which if addressed, would increase municipal capability.

Ethical values are poorly practised, evident in the lack of managerial commitment to equal opportunities for the development of people. People development is not a priority and performance management is not taken seriously. The competencies and contributions of staff to service delivery are not fully recognised. The implementation of HRD policies is poor and employees lack insight into these policies. They stand in isolation and fail to connect with the Integrated Development Plan (strategy) and internal transformation (employment equity and performance management).

Because skills development audits are poorly conducted, HRD interventions are not undertaken in line with employee development plans. The municipalities do not apply a variety of approaches, such as formal and informal development, and employees are not presented with sufficient opportunities to practise new competencies and post-skills development interventions. Recognition of prior learning is poorly implemented.

HRD in municipalities

The organisation of HRD in municipalities is problematic and line managers are not equipped to manage the implementation of projects. HRD outputs are not included in the key performance areas for line managers and interventions are not monitored by the department managers. Line managers, HRD professionals and non-managers are also not collaborating effectively to achieve the objectives.

Councillors and shop stewards (key internal stakeholders) do not understand their roles and responsibilities and senior managers are not supportive of HRD programmes for employees. This, despite people management being identified as a key competency for senior managers. The LGSeta, the South African Local Government Association (Salga) and the Department of Cooperative Governance (DCoG) and Department of Traditional Affairs (DTA) (Cogta) could be collaborating better, as the evidence suggests, but are not doing it.

Employees are not aware of the potential impact of the municipal staff regulations on municipalities. The Municipal Staff Regulations (2021) place municipalities on a new trajectory with a renewed emphasis on increasing organisational capabilities through linking organisational structure and strategy and focusing on performance and development. In the process potential new organisational capabilities and knowledge that could benefit the municipalities are developed but not applied. There is also a glaring absence or awareness of change-management plans.

Recommendations

From the research findings it is further concluded that key indicators in support of knowledge management are not implemented effectively. More than half the participants indicated that they do not know about knowledge management, indicating a clear lack of communication. The performance and development system is not being implemented effectively and data analytics are not used to inform HRD decisions. It is also not known among the research participants whether HRD systems integrate with existing municipal ICT systems. What is more worrying is that the work skills plan evaluation report is the only tool used by the LGSeta to evaluate municipal HRD performance (capability) and is not applied consistently across the provinces.

Our report made a number of recommendations. One being that the LGSeta, as the authority on HRD, should align with the office of the AG through auditing the management performance of HRD in municipalities. Evidenced-based HRD practices provide municipalities with an institutional model to ensure that the performance of managers is included as part of material irregularities reporting (Public Audit Act). An increase in HRD management controls will ensure solutions to the many challenges (financial and human resources) facing local government. Human resources (people) are the most important strategic resources in municipalities and their effective management will foster trust and increase municipal implementation capabilities. This will place local government on a completely new trajectory with effective and efficient management of human resource development and knowledge at the centre of the transformation efforts of local government. This will contribute to Sustainable Development Goal 16 (strong institutions) and hasten the professionalisation of local government as advocated by Salga and the office of the AG. The AG concludes that municipalities should strive for a culture of performance, accountability, transparency and institutional integrity, which will ultimately result in a better life for our people. We agree with the AG. The UFS, as a knowledge partner to local government, is committed to not just produce knowledge for understanding, but for action. If we are to turn around the fortunes of local government then we must act on the recommendations. Phantsi politics and laziness! No more predictable surprises.

News Archive

Inaugural lecture: Prof. Annette Wilkinson

2008-04-16

A strong plea for a pursuit of “scholarship” in higher education

Prof. Annette Wilkinson of the Centre for Higher Education Studies and Development in the Faculty of the Humanities at the University of the Free State (UFS) made as strong plea for a pursuit of “scholarship” in higher education.

She said in her inaugural lecture that higher education has to deal with changes and demands that necessitate innovative approaches and creative thinking when it concerns effective teaching and learning in a challenging and demanding higher education environment. She referred to a recent research report prepared for the Council for Higher Education (CHE) which spells out the alarming situation regarding attrition rates and graduation output in South African higher education and emphasises factors leading to the situation. These factors include socio-economic conditions and shortcomings in the school and the subsequent under preparedness of a very large proportion of the current student population. However, what is regarded as one of the key factors within the sector’s control is the implementation of strategies for improving graduate output.

She said: “The CHE report expresses concern about academics’ adherence to traditional teaching practices at institutions, which have not changed significantly to make provision for the dramatic increase in diversity since the 1980s.

“Raising the profile of teaching and learning in terms of accountability, recognition and scholarship is essential for successful capacity-building,” she said. “The notion of scholarship, however, brings to the minds of many academics the burden of ‘publish or perish’. In many instances, the pressures to be research-active are draining the value put on teaching. Institutions demand that staff produce research outputs in order to qualify for any of the so-called three Rs – resources, rewards and recognition.

“These have been abundant for research, but scarce when it comes to teaching – with the status of the latter just not on the same level as that of research. From within their demanding teaching environments many lecturers just feel they do not have the time to spend on research because of heavy workloads, that their efforts are under-valued and that they have to strive on the basis of intrinsic rewards.”

She said: “It is an unfortunate situation that educational expertise, in particular on disciplinary level, is not valued, even though in most courses, as in the Programme in Higher Education Studies at the UFS, all applications, whether in assignments, projects or learning material design, are directly applied to the disciplinary context. We work in a challenging environment where the important task of preparing students for tomorrow requires advanced disciplinary together with pedagogical knowledge.”

Prof. Wilkinson argued that a pursuit of the scholarship of teaching and learning holds the potential of not only improving teaching and learning and consequently success rates of students, but also of raising the status of teaching and recognising the immense inputs of lecturers who excel in a very demanding environment. She emphasised that not all teaching staff will progress to the scholarship level or are interested in such an endeavour. She therefore suggested a model in which performance in the area of teaching and learning can be recognised, rewarded and equally valued on three distinct levels, namely the levels of excellence, expertise and scholarship. An important feature of the model is that staff in managerial, administrative and support posts can also be rewarded for their contributions on the different levels for all teaching related work.

Prof. Wilkinson also emphasised the responsibility or rather, accountability, of institutions as a whole, as well as individual staff members, in providing an environment and infrastructure where students can develop to their full potential. She said that in this environment the development of the proficiency of staff members towards the levels of excellence, expertise and scholarship must be regarded as a priority.

“If we want to improve students’ success rates the institution should not be satisfied with the involvement in professional development opportunities by a small minority, but should set it as a requirement for all teaching staff, in particular on entry into the profession and for promotion purposes. An innovative approach towards a system of continuous professional development, valued and sought after, should be considered and built into the institutional performance management system.”

As an example of what can be achieved, Prof. Wilkinson highlighted the work of one of the most successful student support programmes at the UFS, namely the Career Preparation Programme (CPP), implemented fourteen years ago, bringing opportunities to thousands of students without matric exemption. The programme is characterised by dedicated staff, a challenging resource-based approach and foundational courses addressing various forms of under preparedness. Since 1993 3 422 students gained entry into UFS degree programmes after successfully completing the CPP; since 1996 1 014 of these students obtained their degrees, 95 got their honours degrees, 18 their master’s degrees and six successfully completed their studies as medical doctors.

Prof. Wilkinson said: “I believe we have the structures and the potential to become a leading teaching-learning university and region, where excellence, expertise and scholarship are recognised, honoured and rewarded.”

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