Human Settlements Minister Thembi Simelane has called on South Africa's middle class, professionals and business community to play a more active role in strengthening local government accountability and service delivery.
Simelane said an “activist middle class” should not replace the State, but use its education, professional capabilities, networks and access to institutions to insist that government performs its responsibilities.
Simelane was speaking during The Platform on Thursday weekly webinar series, where she addressed the role of an activist middle class in getting the basics right at local government level.
Simelane said the term must not be understood as party-political mobilisation or permanent outrage on social media.
Instead, she described activist citizens as informed, organised, lawful, evidence-based and persistent.
“I understand it to mean citizens who are informed, organised, lawful, evidence-based and persistent; citizens who use their education, professional capability, networks and access to institutions in service of a wider democratic good,” Simelane said.
“Its role is to help insist that the State performs; to contribute practical capability where appropriate; to model ethical conduct; and to widen the space in which all communities can participate meaningfully,” Simelane said.
The Minister highlighted five practical roles for the middle class, starting with sustained democratic oversight.
She said citizens should read municipal Integrated Development Plans, budgets, service-delivery plans and performance reports; participate in decision-making before key decisions are finalised; use ward committees, petitions, public hearings and lawful information channels; bring evidence, track undertakings; and return to establish what has changed.
“The practical lesson is that activism works best when it is collective and specific,” Simelane said.
The minister urged citizens to identify a broken commitment, establish the responsible institution, agree on evidence that will demonstrate progress, and maintain a record until there is a response.
“Good oversight does not merely expose failure; it makes avoidance more difficult and correction more likely.”
Simelane said citizens who can pay for municipal services must do so, while supporting fair and transparent protection for indigent households.
“Residents and businesses should comply with planning and building rules, protect public facilities, report failures responsibly and reject illegal connections, vandalism and the normalisation of neglect,” the Minister said.
She also called on professionals to place their expertise at the service of communities and public institutions.
“Engineers, planners, architects, lawyers, accountants, project managers, data specialists, academics and communicators can help communities understand plans, improve public proposals, mentor young professionals and emerging contractors, and support clearly defined municipal or settlement challenges through professional bodies and universities,” Simelane said.
However, she warned that such support must strengthen accountable institutions rather than create “unaccountable parallel structures.”
Simelane also called for a stronger ethical and transformative business culture in human settlements.
Businesses operating in the sector, she said, must reject collusion, bribery, fronting and extortion, deliver quality work, comply with consumer-protection standards, pay smaller suppliers on time, and invest in skills and local supply chains.
“Predictable project pipelines must support genuine enterprise development rather than once-off access. public-private partnership must mean shared risk, transparent value and public benefit - not the privatisation of decision-making.”
Simelane also highlighted the role of women, youth and other groups that remain excluded from economic opportunities, highlighting that across the department's six entities, approved Annual Performance Plans set a minimum target of 40 percent of annual procurement spend for women-owned businesses.
However, she said target must be measured by examining whether women are able to finance delivery, build a track record, employ people, secure subsequent contracts and progress into leadership across construction, property, finance, professional services and social housing.
Simelane said government must also fulfil its side of the partnership by publishing realistic and funded priorities, improving project preparation, providing clear feedback, making performance visible and acting on failure and corruption.
She called on the platform to focus its contribution on three questions, including the specific local or settlement problem being addressed, verifiable result that will demonstrate changed conditions, and what each participant - the State, business, professions and communities - will contribute within the law and a defined timeframe. – SAnews.gov.za
