ASSEMBLIES OF GOD GAUTENG DISTRICT COUNCIL

Transcription

1 ASSEMBLIES OF GOD GAUTENG DISTRICT COUNCIL SECOND PROGRESS REPORT OF THE TASK TEAM ON THE DECENTRALISATION OF THE GAUTENG DISTRICT COUNCIL *************************************** 02 JUNE 2012 Page 0 of 11

2 SECOND PROGRESS REPORT OF THE TASK TEAM ON THE DECENTRALISATION OF THE GAUTENG DISTRICT COUNCIL 1. INTRODUCTION This is the second Progress Report on the advances made by the Task Team on the Decentralisation of the Assemblies of God Gauteng District Council towards fulfilling its mandate since its appointment in November last year. The first Progress Report was presented during the General District Council Meeting that was held in February 2012 and was aimed at assisting the District Council in understanding the overall implications of the decentralisation process and also provided a broad framework within which the decentralisation process was to be pursued as well as the relevant transitional systems that had to be considered for possible establishment. This report largely focuses on the work covered by the Demarcation Sub- Committee of the Task Team, more particularly the responses received pursuant to a questionnaire that was issued by the Task Team as part of the consultative process aimed at arriving at informed decisions. It is the Task Team s considered view that the input and opinions of the wider and general members of the Gauteng District Council are crucial if the entire process is to have any legitimacy. In an effort to arrive at informed decisions, the Demarcation Sub- Committee embarked on an exercise to retrace the historical background that led to the establishment of the two regions that fall under the jurisdiction of the Gauteng District Council, namely Eastern Reef and Western Reef. The result of this exercise revealed that these regions have had distinct existence and separate leadership across all organisational components within the Assemblies of God Movement and Back to God Page 1 of 11

3 Crusade since the late 1960 s/early 1970 s when the Reef was decentralised into two, although there is no compelling reason why the District Council (and, by implication, the District Council Committee) has remained one. To a greater extent, the boundaries of the current regions were largely informed by the historical political boundaries of the then Johannesburg Municipality which set out where the West Rand and the East Rand divided and the church simply followed that pattern with minor encroachment into the surrounding areas in the former TRANSVAAL and ORANGE FREE STATE. The Transvaal included the homelands of Gazankulu, Venda, Lebowa, KwaNdebele, KaNgwane and the Eastern enclaves of Bophuthatswana. In 1994, Transvaal was reorganized into the new provinces of Mpumalanga (Eastern Transvaal), Limpopo (Northern Transvaal) and North West (Western Transvaal). [REFER TO RELEVANT MAP] The Task Team is highly indebted to the invaluable contribution made by a number of brethrens who provided deep insight in their responses to the questionnaire that was distributed as well as, amongst others, Pastor B Mofokeng and Mrs Mofokeng, Pastor E Maluleke and Mr P Nkolisa who generously shared from their memories and archives in illuminating some areas of the task at hand. 2. LESSONS FROM PROVINCIAL BOUNDARY DISPUTES IN POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA South Africa comes from a past where government policy was used to entrench, deepen and widen the divide between rich and poor, urban and rural as well as the different races and classes of citizens. In abolishing Page 2 of 11

4 some of these remnants of apartheid, the post-apartheid government found itself confronted with serious challenges when it had to do away with so-called cross-boundary municipalities in Bushbuckridge, Moutse, Matatiele, Khutsong and, most recently, Balfour. What initially started off as merely demacating certain areas in one province or another turned violent as tempers flared because citizens felt they were being dumped or compromised into comparatively poorly administered provinces. One of the things that stand out from all these disputes is the importance of an inclusive and effective consultative process where the views and input of the affected people are earnestly considered before reaching any conclusion. The legal arguments in the court challenges that the communities of these areas launched were largely centred on the failure of the government to consult adequately and to appropriately consider the views of the people. The church is not totally insulated and immune from political developments as may be evident from the name-changes to some of our regions that came about as a result of the demarcation of new provinces in the new political dispensation. Since 2002 provincial boundaries have been demarcated with reference to municipal demarcation maps instead of magisterial districts to do away with cross-boundary municipalities. The establishment of other political entities such as Metropolitan and District Municipalities thus had a significant impact on the demarcation process. It is against the backdrop of the above realities that unfolded in some of our areas that the Decentralisation Task Team noted that the demarcation of the boundaries of the envisaged new regions cannot be simply a matter of merely placing certain local assemblies in one region or another. Whilst our District Council is currently conveniently referred to as the Gauteng District Council, it is straddled across five political provinces, namely Limpopo, Mpumalanga, Gauteng, North West and Free State and is Page 3 of 11

5 composed of three Metropolitan Municipalities (City of Tshwane, City of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni), three District Municipalities (Sedibeng, Metsweding and West Rand) as well as eight local municipalities, with Ekungwini and Nokeng Tsa Taemane having recently been absorbed into the City of Tshwane Metropolitan Municipality. It is not without significance that two of the Metropolitan Municipalities are within Eastern Reef (Tshwane and Ekurhuleni) and that the Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality is shared. Gauteng, formerly known as Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vereeniging (PWV), was carved out of the old Transvaal province in 1994, although the terminology "PWV", describing the region existed long before that. [REFER TO RELEVANT MAP] The Task Team is of the view that whilst it is not necessary to fix something that is not broken the responses to some of the questions raised in the questionnaire prompted the need to ask whether or not there are some of the local assemblies that fall within either Western Reef or Eastern Reef which should be demarcated to other regions such as Limpopo South, Mpumalanga Highveld or even Northern Free State due to a range of factors. [REFER TO RELEVANT MAPS] 3. RESPONSES TO SOME OF THE KEY QUESTIONS IN THE QUESTIONNAIRE This component of the report is drawn from the responses that were provided by a wide range of brethren that were randomly identified and requested to complete a structured questionnaire. The importance of this Page 4 of 11

6 component cannot be overemphasised as it is critical in providing insight into the thinking of the general members of the Gauteng District Council on certain key aspects of the decentralisation process. Whereas the target was to obtain the views of brethren from at least each of the sub-districts within both the Western Reef and Eastern Reef, eventually all the responses received came from only Eastern Reef brethren. Nonetheless, the responses provide sufficient food for thought in the processes that still lie ahead. For purposes of today s exercise, only a selected number of questions and their responses will be covered in this report. 3.1 To what extent, if any, do you think the Decentralisation Process will contribute in improving the efficiency, governance and capacity of the Assemblies of God Leadership in Gauteng? An overwhelming majority of the respondents are of the view that there might be innovative ways to make and finalise decisions because responsibility and accountability will be spread and shared amongst many capable men. This will help in easing the workload and improve efficiency, with better management of the various groups as the District Council Committee will be able to review issues and revisit local assemblies for necessary follow-ups. Decentralisation will also eliminate unnecessary overlaps in dealing with issues at Gauteng District Council level whereas they may affect only one region and not the other. Page 5 of 11

7 3.2 What considerations, if any, should be taken into account regarding the possible relocation of the current employees of the District Council Office? The most popular view is that Office Staff should be deployed to the region where they currently reside, with an option to decline such deployment. As a transitional measure, the District Council Committee should consider a possible balanced split and additional members being appointed to add to the existing compliment as a starting point and as part of skills transfer. 3.3 Once the Decentralisation Process is completed, who should take responsibility for the current retired Pastors and staff member(s)? Most of the respondents are of the view that the region where currently retired Pastors and staff member(s) reside should take care of them, with the proviso that there should be an equitable distribution of funds from the pool in line with the ratio of the retired Pastors per region so that the respective regions should adequately take care of the Pastors and staff member(s) during the transitional period. 3.4 Which factors should be taken into account in determining the boundaries/boundaries of the envisaged new District Councils? There were vastly divergent responses to this question. On the one hand, there is a view that the geographical or political boundaries should be used such that the Metropolitan Municipalities should be split equally between the two regions. On the other hand, there is a view that the Gauteng District Council should be divided in such a manner that the two regions should have an equal number of local assemblies, taking into consideration the distance travelled (suggested maximum radius of 100km) to the nearest big local assembly and the need to balance the Page 6 of 11

8 financial muscles of both regions. There is also a third view to the effect that the boundaries of the two regions as they are currently constituted should also serve as the boundaries of the envisaged District Councils with no locals being moved. 3.5 Any suggested locations of the offices and names of the envisaged District Councils? Most popular suggestions: Western Reef District Council Soweto Eastern Reef District Council Kempton Park/Midrand A strong view that also emerged was that once the Regional Centres are functional the offices should be located there. 3.6 In your view, are there any local assemblies that should be moved from one current region to another? If so, which one(s) and what would be the motivating factor(s) for your suggestion? An overwhelming majority is of the view that no local assembly should be moved from one region to another. However, a compelling case was made of the need to consider whether Ekangala should not form part of Mpumalanga Highveld because it is closer to KwaMhlanga/Dennilton and District locals than Mpumalanga Zone locals (+- 30km to KwaMhlanga) and km to Mamelodi. The same goes for Bela-bela in the north and Sasolburg in the south. It was further pointed out that these scenarios may necessitate an engagement and further consultation with the brethren of the affected local assemblies as well as those that are in the regions nearer to these local assemblies in the long run. [REFER TO RELEVANT MAP] Page 7 of 11

9 Because of the oft held view that Gauteng is the financial hub of Southern Africa and the resultant economic prospects of being associated with it, directly or indirectly, it is readily accepted that there will be justification for Ekangala and Bela-bela to resist being incorporated into Mpumalanga Highveld and Limpopo South respectively and Sasolburg into the Northern Free State. [REFER TO RELEVANT MAP] 3.7 How best should the division of the current finances and assets of the District Council be approached? There should be a pro rata division of current finances and assets, with the past performance in contributions towards the pool fund by the local assemblies of each region being the primary determining factor without necessarily financially haemorrhaging the emerging District Councils when taking the geographical area covered into consideration. 3.8 What critical factors should the Task Team not lose sight of in the entire responsibility that has been assigned it? The church is a living organism. We should therefore probe ways and means of establishing local assemblies in the towns and cities and review the way they should be run, which should be different from the current way of running those that in the townships, bearing in mind the diversity of cultural backgrounds. There might be a need to restructure the pool system to meet the needs of locals that are in need. The pool should assist the local assemblies that cannot afford to maintain their Pastors, with big assemblies being given Page 8 of 11

10 the latitude to determine the support of their Pastors and pay them directly, without necessarily stopping to contribute to the pool. There are a number of so called grey areas where currently the Assemblies of God Movement may not necessarily have local assemblies but there are brethren who stay there and fellowship in one of the existing local assemblies (for example Cosmos City, Kibler Park, Roodepoort, Constantia Park etc). It may be advisable to demarcate clear boundaries of the envisaged District Council so that in the event of any new local assembly being established in these so called grey areas there should be certainty on the District Council they belong to. Sight should also not be lost of the need to maintain harmony and peace amongst ourselves as brethren. Money should not cause rifts and divisions and if it were to happen that one region, as a result of the decentralisation, experiences a decline financially, it may have to be accepted that there are other regions within the Assemblies of God Movement that may also be in a similar situation. Perhaps the Task Team can learn from the situation in Limpopo when it was decentralised into Limpopo and Limpopo South. 4. RECOMMENDATIONS 4.1 Without doubt, there is still a need for intense consultation on a number of issues raised in response to the questionnaire. It is therefore recommended that a Special General District Council Meeting should be convened before the end of the year to specifically address all the outstanding issues that require a robust debate and engagement before being finalised. Amongst others, a decision may have to be taken on the extent to which political considerations and demarcations should influence our process. Page 9 of 11

11 4.2 Insofar as there may be areas that may be up for possible incorporation into other regions, the Task Team recommends that the following consultative process should be followed in dealing with that situation: * direct consensus seeking engagement on a local assembly-by-local assembly or zone-by-zone basis in identified local assemblies; * the consensus seeking engagement to be undertaken in and limited only to those local assemblies and zones/districts that are directly affected; * maximum participation of members of affected local assemblies to be ensured; * efforts to be made to ensure that the process enjoys wide legitimacy among those who will be participating, to ensure collective ownership of the outcome; * to ensure that persons who reside outside the affected local assemblies will NOT be allowed to participate in the consensus seeking engagement process. IT S STILL WORK IN PROGRESS... Page 10 of 11