When assassins set local agenda

Driven by corruption and patronage, the killing of municipal officials and local councillors is rising, eroding democracy and accountability

- Lesedi Senamele Matlala

Let's not tiptoe around it — local government in South Africa has become a killing field.

In the past five years alone, 37 municipal officials and 59 councillors have been murdered across the country, according to official data compiled by ProtectionWeb, released in January 2025.

These statistics are not merely numbers; they represent a deeply disturbing signal of the erosion of democratic governance and public accountability at the very foundation of our state.

The recent assassinations of municipal officials in Gauteng and KwaZulu-Natal — two of the most affected provinces — underscore the climate of fear that is spreading through local government. In Gauteng, 11 officials were murdered in the 2019-to-2024 period. In KwaZulu-Natal, the number climbs to 17.

These figures do not include attempted assassinations, threats, or acts of intimidation, which are becoming chillingly routine.

Such violence is not random. It is systemic and often politically motivated — used to silence whistleblowers, intimidate reformers and secure control over lucrative tenders and municipal budgets. South Africa's municipalities have become sites of both political patronage and contestation, where violence is increasingly a tool of influence.

Local government is meant to be the sphere closest to the people, but in many places, it is also the most dysfunctional. The State of Local Government Report by the department of cooperative governance has repeatedly highlighted institutional decay — more than 60% of municipalities are either dysfunctional or distressed. Now, the bullets add urgency to what was once seen as mere bureaucratic malaise.