Hyperlocal focus could revitalise SA's broken local municipalities

Each town must consider its unique circumstances and not wait for national intervention. By Richard Morrow

- Richard Morrow

In a recent poll by the Brenthurst Foundation, seven out of every 10 registered voters in South Africa believed their municipality to be heading in the wrong direction.

Infrastructure and corruption were the two most pressing issues. This is not surprising considering that only 18 out of 166 audited local municipalities in South Africa received a clean audit in the Auditor-General’s 2022/23 report.

Local municipalities are important. Despite the attention given to the country’s metropolitan hubs such as Johannesburg and Cape Town, the majority of South Africans — 67% — live in the country’s 205 local municipalities. Perhaps more important is that local municipalities are home to a little more than half of the country’s labour force and contribute a quarter of its GDP.

There are certainly gems to be found among these municipalities. Africa's largest tyre producer — Sumitomo Rubber South Africa — is based in KwaZulu-Natal’s Alfred Duma Local Municipality. And Heineken’s largest African brewery, boasting an annual capacity of 8.5 million hectolitres, is based in the Midvaal Local Municipality south of Johannesburg.

And yet many of these municipalities are plagued by a host of governance, financial and service delivery challenges. Even where this is not the case, human capital shortcomings limit the ability of municipalities to champion growth and competitive investment agendas. These challenges serve as millstones around the necks of South African municipalities, their economic potential and, ultimately, South Africa’s economic growth.

Where will South Africa’s local municipalities find themselves, say, five years from now? The failure to implement any significant course correction at a local level would risk spurring a vicious downward spiral of economic stagnation, leading to a hollowing out of South Africa’s local municipalities.