DBSA tender raises new questions about ANC’s District Model 

14 July 2020

A tender released by the Development Bank of South Africa (DBSA) prompts new questions about the government’s so-called District Development Model, and whether there lurks behind it an ulterior ANC purpose.

The DBSA says it has been appointed as an implementing agent for the District Development Model, which the bank describes as signifying a shift away from the “highly negotiated” system of planning between different spheres of government.

According to the official government line the District Development Model is only meant to improve cooperation between local, provincial, and national government.

But a “top secret” document unearthed by the Democratic Alliance (DA)  last week proposes that the Model be repurposed as a way to centralise power in the hands of the national ANC government.

The document suggests the establishment of permanent Command Councils with decision-making power - a move that would impede the powers of elected local and provincial government.

The DBSA has now released a tender for professional service providers to compile One Plans for the OR Tambo and Waterberg District Municipalities in line with the District Development Model.

The bank has evidently been appointed by the Department of Cooperative Governance as an “implementing agent” for the Model. In the tender document the bank says that the Model signifies “a shift from highly negotiated alignment of plans to a regulated cooperative governance one plan.”

In turn the DBSA is calling on professional service providers to compile what is called One Plans for the OR Tambo and Waterberg District Municipalities.

These are two of the municipalities where the District Development Model is meant to have been piloted since late last year, but no information has been released to the public about the lessons the government has learnt from the pilot.

Yet the DBSA tender says that the One Plans have to be ready for implementation by 12 February 2021, leaving the DA is to ask: what will the role of the public in deciding whether this District Development Model actually works?

Judging by the scandals that have rocked the Covid-19 relief efforts of the OR Tambo District Municipality, whatever is being piloted there has only worsened municipal governance and service delivery.

The DA will be asking Finance Minister, Tito Mboweni - to whom the DBSA has a reporting line - to release documents given to it by the Department of Cooperative Governance on the District Development Model. We will also write to the DBSA.

We hope that these documents will show what has so far been hidden from the public, including whether these is evidence to justify proceeding with the District Development Model, or indeed whether the Model has anything to do with improving municipal governance and service delivery.

Issued by Cilliers Brink, DA Shadow Deputy Minister of Cooperative Governance & Traditional Affairs, 14 July 2020