THE GATHERING 2026: ‘Not too late to turn around SA’s municipalities with the right people in charge’

“We’ve got to start by worrying about the quality of people who take on significant roles in council… This is not undoable. It is about an active interest, not only in electing people, but driving conversation – and proper engagement with the information that’s available,” said Maluleke in a call to citizens to be active in tracking their council’s performance.

Or, as Zibi put it: “If we focus on what will make a difference, it will be possible to turn around our metros – if you have the right people at the administrative and political level.”

Earlier, Zibi told The Gathering that municipal traffic chiefs and their management team could not tell the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa) why traffic fines were not collected. In Ekurhuleni R2.7-billion in fines were written off, and around R1-billion in Tshwane. This information is in the notes to the municipalities’ financial statements, which the traffic managers clearly had not read.

“The quality of the politician who is in council matters. If we don’t get that right, we will continue to hope and hope… and not get it right,” said Zibi.

With reference to Johannesburg, he said, when people who did not qualify to be middle managers were appointed you would not have managers who were competent to handle multibillion-rand budgets. The decision now was whether to build a city, or “continue to live in dreamland that some with a matric handle multibillion budgets… It’s like taking a donkey to the Durban July”.

Not just an administrative matter

Maluleke emphasised that municipalities being in dire straits was not just an administrative matter, but also involved the Speaker of the council and the mayor who needed to establish the environment in which systems were working with consequences for wrongdoing, and one where residents’ needs were responded to. 

Right now, it was a worry that none of South Africa’s eight metros had a clean audit opinion, the auditor-general said. 

Two metros – Cape Town and eThekwini – produced credible financial statements; Johannesburg, with assistance, corrected misstatements to also return credible group financial statements. Only two produced credible performance reports – and compliance, particularly in procurement, was a “problem” across metros.

“It’s crucial every public institution is led by people who abide by the rules. If people keep on flouting the rules, it says a lot about the institutions… If [we have] negative audits year after year, then you know the institution is not led by people who believe in the rule of law.”

Maluleke said not enough attention was paid to building institutional capability. Sometimes it was a political choice to outsource even the basics, but it raised questions about municipal governance and building the necessary institutional capacity to serve residents. 

After the 4 November local government election, it would be important to track how every party in coalition councils was playing its role.

Maluleke said that since 2016 coalition governance had led to governance failures in most councils as administrations had become unstable. As cities were significant enterprises, people with the requisite skills and competencies were needed as chief financial officers and municipal managers, but also in the managerial levels below them. Tenure and space to build institutional integrity were crucial.

“Not all is lost. We must always remain hopeful,” said Maluleke, adding that the focus must be on ethics, integrity and the drive to build institutions. DM