KZN: Salga looking to empower 300 illiterate councillors
The head of the South African Local Government Association in KwaZulu-Natal Thami Ntuli has said that the illiteracy of councillors does not automatically equate to failure in providing services for their communities. This was in response to a skills audit report by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in KZN which revealed that 298 out of […]
The head of the South African Local Government Association in KwaZulu-Natal Thami Ntuli has said that the illiteracy of councillors does not automatically equate to failure in providing services for their communities.
This was in response to a skills audit report by the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs in KZN which revealed that 298 out of 1944 councillors in the province were unable to read and write.
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NTULI DEFENDS ILLITERATE COUNCILLORS
In an interview with 702, Ntuli who is also the mayor of King Cetshwayo District Municipality stressed that the councillors are elected by the community members which they serve because they are able to address and attend to their matters.
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“I am not quite sure that it can be attributed to this (illiteracy) because on record as SALGA and COGTA we have councillors who are good with the community and attending to the issues of the community without that higher level of education”, says Ntuli.
“In some cases where a councilor is highly educated, you find that there are issues that the councillors have with the community.”
COUNCILLORS AREN’T ALL TO BLAME FOR SERVICE DELIVER ISSUES
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Ntuli also said that the failure of rendering of services cannot be put on the illiterate councillors. But there is cause for concern.
“It’s concerning when it comes to issues of oversight and documents ought to be read in council” Ntuli adds.
The illiteracy of the councillors continues to shed light on the low literacy level of the country. Just two months ago, the country’s came last in an international literacy study aimed at grade 4.
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The study conducted by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) revealed the 81% of grade 4 cannot read for meaning.
South Africa had received an average score of 288‚ well below the international average of 500.