Delivering the ANC’s January 8 statement in Khayelitsha recently, President Cyril Ramaphosa said: “We find the most important area of government, local government, has not been functioning as well as it should.” It’s an admission of the obvious, but welcome nonetheless.
Most of the country’s 257 municipalities are floundering — unable to provide even basic services, failing to manage their finances and deep in debt. Joburg Water has an infrastructure upgrade and maintenance backlog of about R27bn.
The November 2021 local government elections dealt the ANC its first major blow, and the electorate’s disenchantment deepened dramatically in May 2024.
The message of the 2021 election has yet to be acted on. There has been further deterioration in service delivery. Some municipalities have not been able to pay salaries. Municipal debt to Eskom is now more than R109bn, while councils owe water boards more than R20bn. This debt is crippling the already struggling electricity and water authorities.
Auditor-general Tsakani Maluleke told parliament in August that only 34 of the 257 municipalities received a clean audit in financial 2023, and that fruitless and wasteful expenditure rose to R7.41bn from R4.89bn the previous year.
“This amount could be even higher,” she said, “as 15 municipalities … did not report all the expenditures they should have reported in their financial statements. In other cases, the amount of fruitless and wasteful expenditure reported was incorrect.” Maluleke said local government is losing billions of rand each year due to “poor decisions, negligence or inefficiencies”.
Municipalities continue to grapple with a shortage of skills, cash flow problems, governance failures and a lack of accountability among senior officials.
Harlan Cloete, local government expert at the University of the Free State, says: “Political parties should wake up. The 2026 election is around the corner and the stakes are high. People are expecting a lot from municipalities. They must be seen to be improving and delivering.”
The DA has already opened candidate applications for the local government elections. Party spokesperson Willie Aucamp says the DA is running “an immersion programme for talented aspirant candidates and they must be dedicated to serving the community and have the appropriate skills and experience”. They must also have a commitment to DA values “and a strong work ethic”.
Aucamp says there are not enough capable councillors. “ANC cadres are being appointed and this has led to corruption. We have to ensure that we get ethical people so that we can have functioning councils.”
Human Sciences Research Council data for 2010 to 2021 shows that most South Africans are unimpressed with the performance of their municipalities, with only three in 10 expressing satisfaction.
Inadequate leadership is the root cause of many of the problems. It’s a challenging role, which is why it’s crucial to seek out qualified candidates
— Jaap de Visser
Cloete tells the FM the DA is wise to open its selection process early. “It talks to good planning to make sure that local government works, with ethical and accountable leadership. Internal vetting systems are important and political parties should improve these systems.”
He adds that political parties should be more transparent. They should tell voters how they selected particular candidates. “South Africans should demand to see what parties use as criteria for getting on the candidate lists.”
One mayor who appears to enjoy broad support from his constituents is the DA’s Chris Pappas in uMngeni in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands. Pappas, who became mayor in 2021, tells the FM: “Getting the right people to do the job can be game-changing for communities. The DA’s rigorous selection process provides a promising blueprint for improving the quality of candidates at the local level, and we can expect an even more capable and committed cohort of DA representatives to serve wards and communities across the country.”
Prof Jaap de Visser, a specialist in multilevel government, law and development at the Dullah Omar Institute at the University of the Western Cape, has been providing help to municipalities over the past two decades. He says political parties must ensure they get the best candidates for municipalities.
“Inadequate leadership, such as councillors interfering in administration and being unavailable for communities, is the root cause of many of the problems. It’s a challenging role, which is why it’s crucial to seek out qualified candidates.”
After winning the election in uMngeni just over three years ago, Pappas initially faced significant challenges, including hostility from the ANC, which had controlled the municipality since the mid-1990s. But he has made significant improvements in water management, roads and stormwater infrastructure. Last November his municipality was chosen as one of four to pilot critical projects as part of the presidential national infrastructure plan.
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Pappas says the main problems in local government include chronic underfunding and the slow pace of legislative reform. But he believes the GNU can fix these. “There’s the tendency of national government to deflect blame onto local government for service delivery failures, but a closer look reveals that [national] government itself falls short of being a model of efficiency and excellence in service delivery.”
Pappas says an overemphasis on clean audits can hamper the process of reviving local government. “There are some municipalities that perform poorly and fail to provide services, yet they consistently receive clean audits.” Good financial management may entail some box-ticking, but it must be accompanied by good service delivery, job creation, poverty alleviation and a reduction in inequality.
De Visser says South Africa has no choice but to fix municipalities. “We cannot wish local government away or abolish it, but we can look at reforms in the system. Is the system still fit for purpose? It was designed in the 1990s with a bit of romanticism. Now there is a realisation it is about the basics.”
Aucamp agrees there is no choice. “If you look at election results, it’s clear the people of South Africa do not believe that the ANC can do what needs to happen. But it can be fixed. I believe that metros will look very different after the 2026 election.”
Says Cloete: “I think we will see an increase in coalitions. The GNU has seen some positive spin-offs but communities must wake up — they must realise their own agency. Political parties must also accept that the days of having a majority are over, and that they will have to work with people they don’t like or trust and develop coalition maturity.”
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