Let’s rethink local authority standards

To those who have not been following local authorities, the current state of affairs across the more than 50 local authorities may appear new. On the contrary, these shenanigans have been ongoing for a number of years now. What has been lacking is a decisive, systematic response to address the deep-rooted malaise in our local authority sectors.

On the desk of Erastus Uutoni, urban and rural development minister, is a reform paper that gathers dust year after year.

Many saw that paper as an important intervention in the various challenges that local governments face.

It was arrived at through various consultations, international benchmarking visits, and intellectual reflections. Comically, minister Uutoni was part of this exercise. He was a former mayor of Ongwediva, and with other mayors and councillors, they put their heads together on how to improve the local authority sector. He became a minister and betrayed his sector colleagues. He is now sent to various local authorities to tell his former institutional colleagues why and how the reforms they spent years putting together cannot be implemented. That is how the systemic politics of co-option can be brutal and humiliating.

There is one thing that this paper and the sector have not considered. It is the aspect of the quality of men and women who are occupying local authority chambers. As matters stand, an individual who dropped out of school in Walvis Bay can become mayor of the second-largest city in our country. It is the same with the nation’s capital. These individuals are then imposed on society to take important life-and-death decisions including complex scientific matters they have no idea about. They rely on officials, who have their own interests when one considers the tensions between bureaucracy and politicians.

This problem is, of course, national. In Cabinet and Parliament, we may actually have the same case. In comparison, the people of Kenya take issues of governance seriously. They require members of parliament to have at least a university degree. Without those minimum criteria, you will not qualify as a candidate. Kenyans realised and resolved that governance is a serious responsibility that should not be left to anyone.

There are many reasons why this aspect has not been allowed in our society. Three reasons come to mind. The first, and most obvious, is that the people who must bring these standards are themselves lacking them.

It would be tantamount to shooting themselves in the foot. They simply refuse to engage in such a discussion. Second, although they would never admit it in public, the political elite in the executive branch prefers that matters remain the way they are because populating local authorities with skilled politicians would mean that their unchecked authority could be questioned.

They require uninformed councillors who will implement their directives without asking questions. Local authority is where matters such as utility bills and land allocation occur. The uninformed councillors will not hesitate to give land to the relatives of minister Frans Kapofi when instructed to do so. The third reason is that the mobilised illiterate mobs, who occupy influential positions in political party structures in the absence of the educated ones who shy away from muddy politics, will take offence once such proposals are introduced.

Regardless of the level of education, an average district secretary with only grade five in a Swapo structure deep in Otamanzi village, aspires to be a minister, even of the higher education ministry. His mind tells him that it can be done because Comrade so and so is uneducated like me, but he was in Cabinet. They are even able to recite the names of historic comrades like Peter Ilonga who were in parliament and the Cabinet. They, too, can get there. These are their prayers each Sunday at the local church.

These three reasons are sustained by arguments that leadership is not about qualifications. The educated are insulted as "educated fools" and other terms. What is often not realised is that it is the uneducated who downplay education. This is understandable. How can a Catholic bishop not defend sending an offering to the Vatican?

Modern society cannot be won by the uneducated. No matter how offended the uneducated can get, we must not hide this truth. In 2022, when both primary and secondary education are provided for free, what difficulty would we have prescribing that councillors must have a minimum post-matriculation certificate? We need leaders to take difficult decisions for our society. We need standards at local authorities because, without them, these current problems will continue.

Muthoni waKongola is a native of Kongola in the Zambezi Region primarily concerned with analysing society and offering ideas for a better Namibia. She is reachable at [email protected] or @wakongola on Twitter.