Local Government Training: A Review of the South African Experience

Abstract

Local authorities are established to give the citizens of the town or city the opportunity to provide those services which are fundamental to community living. They provide essential services and it is therefore imperative that members of the legislative, governing and administrative components be effectively trained. The councilors are members of the political institution, namely the council.1 The councilors have to undertake legislative and governmental functions in addition to their supervision of the appointed officials who constitute the executive and administrative component. The council is the corporate body and is therefore the employer and the appointed officials are its employees. The Local Government Training Act is the first overall human resources strategy in South Africa that lays down the policy for the creation, development and maintenance of administrative structures and institutions to enable suitably trained people to undertake all the diverse functions of local government. In this paper the administrative structures and institutions for the implementation of the Act is described. This is followed by discussion of the problems' experienced in the implementation of the Act and finally an evaluation of the Act as an overall policy document for local government training in a democratic South Africa.