South Africa’s worst municipalities revealed

There are 41 municipalities in South Africa where provincial authorities had to step in because the municipalities did not fulfil their executive obligations, with the majority located in KwaZulu-Natal.

This was revealed in the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister’s response to an ANC MP’s parliamentary question.

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa revealed that there are currently a total of 41 municipalities placed under interventions in terms of section 139 of the Constitution. 

Section 139 of the Constitution authorises the provincial executive to intervene in a municipality when it fails to fulfil its obligations.

The section empowers the provincial executive to intervene in a municipality if:

• A municipality cannot or does not fulfil an obligation under the Constitution or legislation to approve a budget or any revenue-raising measures necessary to implement the budget.
• A municipality, because of a crisis in its financial affairs, is in serious or persistent material breach of its obligations to provide basic services or to meet its financial commitments or admits that it is unable to meet its obligations or financial commitments.

The minister further revealed that KwaZulu-Natal has the highest number of municipalities placed under section 139 of the Constitution.

In a different Parliamentary response, the minister said financial recovery plans had been developed for municipalities across all provinces where Section 139(5) and 139(7) of the Constitution were invoked.

She said compliance with the Intergovernmental Relations Framework Act is monitored through various intergovernmental technical support processes. 

These processes allow the National and Provincial Treasury to support and monitor the implementation of these financial recovery plans.

These responses reflect the significant decline of South Africa’s municipalities over the past few years.

In 2021/22, the State of Local Government Report identified 66 municipalities in South Africa that are dysfunctional or distressed due to failures in governance, administration, financial management and service delivery. 

While the minister said progress is being made in bringing these municipalities back up to scratch, progress has been slow, and many municipal governments still have a long way to go.

The progress that still needs to be made is clearly visible in the latest State of the Government report from South Africa’s Auditor-General, Tsakani Maluleke.

This report revealed that South African municipalities have crumbled under a decade of mismanagement, with only 34 receiving clean audits for the latest financial year compared to 163 a decade ago. 

Municipal mismanagement has been at the core of poor service delivery in South Africa, with local government often being the only touchpoint individuals have with the state. 

Maluleke said local government is instrumental in providing communities with basic services, often being the authority responsible for the delivery of clean water, sanitation, electricity, and waste management. 

“After years of service delivery failures, council and administrative instability, financial mismanagement, and disregard for the law, this sphere of government faces greater demands than ever before to regain the trust of South Africans,” she said. 

Maluleke said local government officials have failed to listen to her calls for greater accountability, transparency, and capacity.

“Continued excellence at municipalities that maintained their clean audit status and a reduction in the number of municipalities with disclaimed audit opinions offer a further glimmer of hope. Otherwise, there is still little to celebrate.”

Municipalities in disarray do not only impact the qualify of life for people living in that municipality but can have more far-reaching consequences.

Recently, Eskom said it had to ask for a 36% increase in electricity prices because of the government’s inability to rein in delinquent municipalities and errors made by the regulator in adjudicating earlier applications to boost tariffs.

Eskom said the increase is needed to prevent the indebted company from returning to the authorities for further financial help.

Municipalities, including those governing some of the country’s biggest cities, owe the utility around R85 billion, and that could rise to R200 billion in the 2028 financial year, Eskom CFO Calib Cassim said.

“This is unsustainable,” he said. “Government needs to address this.”

Municipalities under administration

Below is the list of municipalities that have been placed under administration, according to Hlabisa.