judgement in the case of the Harrismith Intabazwe and Tshiame ( HIT ) Residents Association , which is now managing water services , electricity reticulation and refuse removal , with the support of the court . But this is not an isolated case , because the water services crisis is of such a magnitude that it has become a ubiquitous problem .
The inability of municipalities to solve these problems is in part due to the policy of cadre deployment ; unqualified people holding key posts fail to recognise that a problem exists and , even if they do , they are unable to adequately resource a viable solution .
This is a key driver of state failure , which can be understood as the inability to resolve local level service delivery problems due to incompetence and a culture of nonaccountability .
GOOD NEWS AS CITIZENS TAKE CONTROL These problems have been exacerbated by the onset of the fiscal cliff , making the availability of money a key constraint . Given the gravity of the consequences , as the cumulative effect of municipal failure triggers the domino effect of state failure , something must be done differently .
This is now starting to become a good news story of possible green shoots of rejuvenation , made possible by the courts ’ willingness to grant citizens the right to regain control where local government consistently fails . Central to this new trend is the growing awareness in both the Treasury and Presidency that service delivery must be managed differently .
Various initiatives are currently under way , often driven by separate groups , but all aimed at finding an alternative model of service delivery at municipal level . Confidentiality precludes me from sharing details , but the various initiatives all have a few things in common . The most significant of these can be summarised by three words : funding , skills , and replicability .
HOW IT WILL WORK On the funding front , the fiscal cliff means that the government is effectively bankrupt , and the taxpayer has been bled dry .
This necessitates the sourcing of alternative funding sources , of which a number are available , but all of which require accountability , financial viability and the guarantee of skilled management before any commitment is made . There is no shortage of capital available , but there is a national shortage of bankable projects . The non-bankable projects will
19