South Africa has launched the most far-reaching rewrite of its municipal system since 1998, just 12 days before voters choose new councils. Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa launched the Cabinet-approved Revised White Paper on Local Government in Boksburg, Gauteng, on 22 October. It is the first major overhaul of the original 1998 policy, according to the Mail & Guardian. President Cyril Ramaphosa called it a reset of how municipalities are structured, financed and held accountable.
What the White Paper proposes
The central idea is that municipalities should stop being treated alike. In his launch address, Ramaphosa said powers and functions should be linked to a municipality’s size, capability and performance. Where a council cannot carry out a function, it should be assigned elsewhere, for example to a regional body or through partnerships and concessions. He said constitutional and legislative amendments may be needed.
Other measures in the address include:
- separating the role of service authority from service provider, with compulsory licensing for all water and electricity providers;
- ring-fencing revenue from electricity and water sales so it is spent first on maintaining the infrastructure that produces it;
- a differentiated funding model, since Hlabisa said metros should not be funded like small rural municipalities;
- a stronger District Development Model, so national, provincial and local government plan around shared priorities.
The funding problem is large. Ramaphosa said municipalities owe Eskom more than R120 billion, and many are also in arrears to water boards.
Politics and administration, pulled apart
Hlabisa said cadre deployment has badly damaged municipal performance and that jobs must be based on merit. The remark is notable because he leads the IFP in the coalition government, and cadre deployment is a term closely associated with the ANC’s appointment practices. The White Paper calls for separating political leadership from professional administration. Parliament’s COGTA committee welcomed this in a statement, with chairperson Dr Zweli Mkhize saying blurred lines between the two have driven much of the instability in municipalities. The committee also backed the paper’s early-warning approach to municipalities in distress and its shared accountability across the three spheres of government.
Implementation is the test
Ramaphosa said reform will be phased and overseen by a time-bound Local Government Transition Management Body, led jointly by COGTA, the Presidency and National Treasury. Hlabisa said the first step is a 90-day transition plan setting priorities, responsibilities and timelines. The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) called the White Paper a landmark. Its deputy president, Xola Pakati, said reform now needs adequate funding, policy and political will from all three spheres of government.
Several questions remain open. Mkhize’s committee said it has asked whether targets in national support programmes actually improve struggling municipalities, and that it will check whether reforms improve performance. His own yardstick was infrastructure that works and councils that “answer to the people they serve”. The statements reviewed also do not say whether differentiated funding means more money overall or a different split of existing transfers. Taking functions away from weaker municipalities is also politically sensitive and, as Ramaphosa acknowledged, may need constitutional change. That would take far longer than 90 days.
The election timing adds pressure. Voters go to the polls on 4 November, and the new councils will be the first to work under the framework. Ramaphosa urged parties that end up in coalitions not to let disagreements stall budgets or essential services. Whether councillors, MECs and national departments accept clearer limits on their powers will show how serious the reset is. More coverage is in our African elections section and Politics.
