One KwaZulu-Natal city stands out for excellent service delivery

Amid severe service delivery challenges across the province, Msunduzi Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal has been awarded for its performance.

Msunduzi walked away with three awards at the 2026 Municipal Excellence Awards held at the Durban International Convention Centre on Friday, 13 March.

These awards are hosted annually by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, aiming to celebrate the province’s best-performing municipalities. 

At the 2026 Awards, Msunduzi proved a standout performer, taking home three awards. 

This included recognition for the city’s collaboration with the Mpumuza Traditional Authority in coordinating service delivery, third place for the Best Developed Integrated Development Plan (2025/26), and a Clean Audit Award for Safe City from the Auditor-General of South Africa. 

Msunduzi is a local municipality located in the Umgungundlovu District Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal.

It includes the city of Pietermaritzburg, the province’s administrative and legislative capital and one of its main economic hubs.

The city houses the University of KwaZulu-Natal, and is home to several top South African schools, including Maritzburg College, Epworth School, Pietermaritzburg Girls’ High School, and St Nicholas Diocesan School.

Branding itself as the “City of Choice” in South Africa, largely due to its proximity to key locations like the Durban Port and King Shaka International Airport, Msunduzi is home to over 600,000 people.

The city also hosts major national and global events, such as the Comrades Marathon, the Dusi Canoe Marathon and the Midmar Mile.

“Here, one can walk in the footsteps of Gandhi, Mandela and Paton, and many other truly great South Africans,” the city states on its website.

“Pietermaritzburg has come a long way from the quiet, colonial outpost it once was. Today, it is a modern South African city that is home to over 600,000 people of diverse cultures.”

In the municipality’s latest annual report for 2024/25, it reported progress on its CBD Regeneration Programme initiative.

This initiative is aimed at coordinating a multidisciplinary approach to address various service delivery challenges experienced in Msunduzi’s central business district (CBD).

Some of the challenges that have been addressed through this initiative include road markings, maintenance of streetlights and traffic lights, responding to water leaks, and maintenance of public spaces.

The initiative has also responded to illegal street trading, environmental health challenges, traffic management control, enforcement of by-laws, illegal dumping, and optimising waste management operations.

KwaZulu-Natal

Msunduzi’s service delivery improvements come as KwaZulu-Natal as a whole is attempting to improve basic service delivery and municipal governance across the province.

This has led to some progress, with the Auditor-General (AG) of South Africa, Tsakani Maluleke, noting in the latest Public Finance Management Act report for 2023/24 that the province has improved its financial management.

“Despite a slight regression in audit outcomes from last year, there has been an overall improvement in financial management, performance reporting and compliance with legislation in the province since the last year of the previous administration,” the AG noted. 

Maluleke noted that KwaZulu-Natal leadership and senior management have shown increased focus on achieving clean administration, with 10 auditees (48%) receiving a clean audit in 2023/24 compared to five (25%) in 2018/19. 

However, she noted that while this progress is encouraging, persistent delays in service delivery and the development of critical infrastructure remain concerning. 

“Last year, we recommended adopting a zero-tolerance approach to poor performance and strictly enforcing compliance with legislation and consequence management at all levels to address poor outcomes and service delivery challenges.”

“But, limited progress has been made to address these challenges,” the AG said.

Maluleke explained that critical infrastructure projects in the province continued to be marred by quality defects and delays, poor coordination among role players, and limited accountability for officials and contractors.

For example, she pointed to the Umbulwane community in Ladysmith, which, at the time, had been without proper housing 20 years after the start of a Reconstruction and Development Programme housing project.

This was due to delays in obtaining funding for the acquisition of land and a lack of coordination between the role players responsible for the completion and connection of bulk infrastructure.

“Existing infrastructure was also not adequately maintained due to insufficient maintenance planning and a lack of prioritisation of budgets for maintenance projects,” the AG said. 

“Inspections of schools and hospitals revealed deteriorating infrastructure, such as collapsed ceilings and non-adherence to fire-safety and electrical compliance requirements, which placed learners’ and patients’ safety at risk.” 

Concerningly, she said the province is also not fully ready to manage disasters due to outdated disaster response plans, insufficient funding, poor communication and inadequate infrastructure maintenance. 

“The new administration should focus on addressing infrastructure failures, improving disaster management readiness, and enforcing accountability for all role players,” she said.