The promise of a working tap, a lit street and a collected bin is where most South Africans actually meet their government, and President Cyril Ramaphosa has conceded that this encounter is failing far too often. Addressing the launch of the Revised White Paper on Local Government in Ekurhuleni on Thursday, the President warned that people can no longer be expected to endure unreliable services because of dysfunctional municipal administrations, politically motivated appointments and factional battles.
The stakes go well beyond daily inconvenience, he argued. When basic services break down, the damage reaches into people’s health, livelihoods, safety and dignity. Persistent failures also chip away at faith in democratic institutions themselves, making the repair of local government a matter of public trust rather than administrative housekeeping.
The revised policy proposes sweeping changes to how municipalities are managed, financed and held accountable, with professionalisation, stronger financial controls and improved community participation listed among its key priorities. The President said municipalities need competent administrators, ethical political leadership and effective oversight if public confidence in the local government system is to be restored.
“We need councils that lead with integrity, provide effective oversight and put residents ahead of factional or personal interests. We need administrations led and staffed by people appointed for their competence and commitment to public service,” Ramaphosa said.
He was frank about the origins of the current predicament. Some of the problems confronting municipalities, he acknowledged, trace back to weaknesses in the original design of the democratic local government system, including insufficient attention to institutional capacity and the risks of politicised appointments. The new system had been built to integrate communities deliberately divided by apartheid spatial planning and unequal access to resources, but government underestimated how important it would be to develop a new generation of engineers, town planners and municipal managers to sustain it.
“We underestimated how politicised appointments would open the door to corruption, malfeasance and a lack of accountability,” he said.
The revised policy responds by strengthening municipal administrations and clarifying where the duties of political leaders end and those of professional officials begin. Political leaders must respect the lawful responsibilities of administrators, while officials must answer for their performance and conduct. Public resources must be managed responsibly and procurement protected from manipulation.
“There must be consequences when public resources are stolen, procurement is manipulated or public duties are neglected,” the President said, adding that accountability must be “fair, lawful and consistent, regardless of status, political affiliation or personal connections.”
The reforms also aim to rebuild the relationship between municipalities and the people they serve. For many residents, government is measured by whether water flows, streetlights work, roads are safe and refuse is collected. When those things fail, the President said, trust cannot be restored by speeches.
“Participation cannot be reduced to meetings where people speak but nothing changes. Trust will not be restored by speeches. It will be restored when a reported fault is fixed promptly; when a resident receives an honest response to a complaint, and when municipal leaders account openly for their decisions,” he said.
Communities, in this vision, become active partners in governance, with access to information about municipal commitments, available resources and delivery progress.
Money is a central part of the diagnosis. Unsustainable finances and poor infrastructure maintenance are undermining municipalities’ ability to deliver essential services. Municipalities owe Eskom more than R120 billion, and many are also in arrears to water boards. The revised policy proposes stronger financial management, improved revenue collection, reduced losses and spending that delivers value to communities. Revenues from the sale of electricity and water will be ring-fenced and used to maintain infrastructure before anything else, a measure meant to ensure that money generated through those services sustains the systems they depend on.
“We cannot build our way out of failure if we do not maintain what we have already built,” the President warned. Residents who can afford to pay should contribute, he said, but government must earn that contribution through reliable services, transparent decisions and responsible stewardship of public funds.
Municipal dysfunction, he stressed, cannot be fixed municipality by municipality alone, since performance is shaped by the governing laws, assigned responsibilities and support from other spheres of government. He called for stronger coordination among national government, provincial administrations, municipalities and State-owned entities so that investment and service delivery priorities are aligned.
The White Paper proposes a differentiated approach to municipal powers and functions, recognising that municipalities differ in institutional capacity, financial resources and delivery ability. Under the model, responsibilities would be matched to capability, with some functions potentially delivered at regional level or assigned elsewhere where a municipality could not perform them effectively. Stronger regulation of water and electricity services is also proposed, including compulsory licensing for providers and a separation between the authority responsible for a service and the entity providing it. National and provincial government, Ramaphosa said, cannot stand apart from municipal failures when problems are rooted in the wider system.
The launch marks a shift from policy debate to implementation. Cabinet has endorsed a phased approach supported by a time-bound Local Government Transition Management Body, with coordinated leadership from the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, The Presidency and National Treasury. A single Local Government Transition Plan will identify the required changes, the responsible institutions, the sequence of actions and how progress will be measured. The body will coordinate the reform process without taking over the lawful responsibilities of Ministers, provinces, municipal councils and administrations. Some proposals will require legislative changes, new financing arrangements, additional institutional capabilities and potentially constitutional amendments.
The revised policy follows a review of nearly three decades of democratic local government, which was established through the 1998 White Paper to address the fragmented and unequal municipal system inherited from apartheid. While significant progress has been made in expanding access to basic services, the President said persistent infrastructure problems, financial distress and institutional weaknesses demonstrate the need for a new approach.
The timing is pointed. The call for greater accountability comes less than two weeks before the Local Government Elections scheduled for 4 November. Ramaphosa urged registered voters to participate while reminding political parties and candidates that their responsibility to communities must take precedence over political competition once they assume office. Reform, he said, must extend beyond electoral cycles, municipal terms and individual administrations.
He thanked Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa and the institutions, researchers, practitioners and citizens who contributed to the policy review. The priority now, he said, is translating the revised policy into practical changes that improve municipal performance and strengthen public confidence.
“A capable State must deliver where people live, work and raise their children. A developmental State must improve their quality of life. A democratic State must earn and keep the trust of its people,” he said.
“We must implement the reforms that are needed to fix local government, even when they are difficult. Let us build municipalities that work for every South African,” he said.