South Africa: Zuma says mayors need to do more

CAPE TOWN, South Africa — The South African government plans to overhaul the way South African cities are governed and funded in the wake of a series of violent protests, officials said Tuesday.

In a nationally broadcast address before a closed meeting with 283 mayors from across the country, President Jacob Zuma said local leaders needed clean up corruption and stop squabbling.

Zuma said, however, that change would not come quickly, saying the government lacks resources, in part because of the global recession.

“It is clear that we need to do more, and that we need to do things differently,” Zuma said.

Protests have erupted in towns and townships across South Africa. Demonstrators are demanding that the government speed delivery of clean water, electricity and other services.

Zuma said he understood the frustration, but he condemned the violence.

After Tuesday’s meeting, Zuma’s aides told reporters that cities receive adequate funding and that coordination between local, provincial and national governments would be improved.

“What we can take back to our people is that progress has started,” said B.J. Chaaban, mayor of a town near Cape Town.

He said that, in the meeting, the possibility had been raised of having the national government rather than municipalities pay city councilors’ salaries.

“It’s not going to change their situation overnight,” said Scelo Duma, a mayor in the eastern province of Kwazulu-Natal. “But I’m hoping this will result in something.”

Many municipalities in South Africa are poorly funded, mismanaged and riddled with corruption. Their leaders are battling to overcome decades of apartheid planning in which white suburbs were well-serviced while black people lived in abysmal conditions on the edges of towns and cities.

The violent protests have also been blamed on political maneuvering before 2011 municipal elections.