Local government and municipalities are very complex pieces of machinery, which need to be brought closer to the people. This is the view of Tahir Sema, spokesperson of the South African Local Government Association (SALGA).

Speaking at the Africities Summit currently being held in Johannesburg, Sema acknowledged that at times communication between local governments and communities can be challenging.

“Even I am often confused as to who to report a problem to at any single municipality there are tons of departments and dozens of technical people it’s a very difficult machinery to navigate, and if I as a someone who is a communicator, find it difficult to navigate local government I can only imagine how difficult it is for an ordinary citizen to get in touch with their municipality.”

Sema explained that it is important to decipher the complex nature of local government and ensure that citizens understand how to access the basic services of their municipalities.

Knock on the doors of the community

As much as a lot of the discourse around communication in the municipal sector is focused on social media today, Sema points out that many of the constituents African Municipalities serve do not have access to these forms of communication and therefore it is not the be all and end all.

“Many of us communicators have forgotten the importance of face to face communication.  We have forgotten the importance of knocking on people’s doors and telling them what their municipality has done for them.”

Many a time we go into communities we upgrade, parks, roads etc and we never go into these communities knock on their doors and let them know, this is who we are and this is what we are doing.”

Policies and plans are only the beginning

Sema noted that policies and plans are important however they are not the alpha and omega, implementation is extremely important.

“In municipalities we are very good at producing lengthy policies and documentation but the implementation of these documents never ever take place as they are envisioned to take place. It’s not the documents, plans and policies that communicate the stories of our municipalities it’s the implementation.”