By Miyelani Holeni, Chief Adviser, Ntiyiso Consulting Group
In the annual “January 8 statement” of the ANC, President Cyril Ramaphosa again placed fixing local government at the top of government’s priorities. This is not new. He also said it last year, and referenced saying it before. The repetition matters because it signals that the problem is no longer about intent but about execution.
From our work with more than 50 municipalities over the past two decades, one thing is clear: South Africa keeps trying to recover a system that never built capability in the first place.
There is no recovery without capability
The government often speaks about recovery and sustainability. Those are valid goals, but they sit at the top of a hierarchy, not the bottom.
At Ntiyiso, we subscribe to the Resilience Strategy Hierarchy developed by Dr Louis van der Merwe in his book, “Gauging the Resilience of City and Town Government: A Manual for Strategists”. We also draw on our lived experience of working in South African municipalities and of dealing with the precarious situations therein. The Resilience Strategy Hierarchy provides a practical framework that outlines the conditions required for a municipality to stabilise, recover and grow, in that order. It starts with capability assessment – a clear test of whether a municipality can perform its basic functions with the people, systems and controls it has at that moment.
What has worked for us is using this assessment to strip away assumptions. We examine governance, financial controls, service delivery systems and decision rights. Where capability is weak, discussions about recovery plans or sustainability targets become premature. You cannot stabilise what does not function.
Only once capability exists can capacity be built. Only then can municipalities have the in-built intuition to anticipate risks, adapt to change and recover from failure. Growth follows function, not the other way around.
What we have repeatedly noticed is that many municipalities are expected to recover from crises they were never equipped to manage. That is not a failure in leadership alone but a systems failure.
The three root causes
Our submission to the review of the 1998 White Paper on Local Government identified three fundamental root causes.
The first is a lack of capability. Capability combines issues around strategy, leadership and service delivery. Many municipalities lack all three. Integrated development plans – meant to outline strategies to manage municipal finances for the purpose of facilitating everything from basic service provision to infrastructural development, improved spatial planning and even disaster management – are often treated as compliance exercises. Leadership is fragmented between political and administrative centres. Technical, financial, planning and economic skills are either non-existent or underdeveloped or thinly spread.
The second is institutional misalignment. Many municipalities are not structured to deliver the services they are mandated to provide. I have seen municipalities serving populations that are three times larger than when their structures were approved, yet using obsolete operating models. Sometimes, finance departments are staffed by interns. Engineering units are unable to retain qualified professionals. Institutions are stuck in the past while demands escalate.
The third root cause is scale and economic viability. South Africa has too many municipalities with no economic base. These municipalities cannot sustain themselves yet carry full political and administrative overheads. This fragments scarce skills and entrenches dependency on transfers.
As long as these issues remain unresolved, no number of speeches or policy reform will fix local government.
South Africa does not lack policy, frameworks or strategies. What it lacks is implementation discipline and the capability to “do the right things and do them the right way”.
Too often, local government reform becomes an academic exercise. Elegant models are produced. Theories are debated. But little changes on the ground.
Practical experience is unbeatable. What has worked for us at Ntiyiso Consulting Group has not been another policy, but rolling up our sleeves in municipalities – rebuilding revenue systems, restructuring governance, fixing operating models, stabilising service delivery and developing leaders who can execute.
This is not to dismiss academia, but to call for a balanced approach. Everyone has a role to play, but theory without application has not kept the lights on, fixed water infrastructure or even restored public trust.
What we believe should be done – now
Having spent 20 years doing the unglamorous work of fixing failing systems across all nine provinces, we believe that anyone serious about change should begin where transformation truly starts – at the bottom of the hierarchy:
– Capability assessment across strategy, leadership and service delivery
– Institutional restructuring aligned to population and economic realities
– Capacity building in finance, engineering, planning and governance
– Practical recovery plans with timelines, accountability and consequences
These are not theoretical ideas; they are deployable interventions that have been tried and tested.
The government cannot do this alone
Local government will not be fixed by the government talking to itself. Civil society has a role to play. Business has a role to play. Development finance institutions have a role to play. Practitioners with proven methods must be part of the solution.
Citizens already step in when the state fails, directing traffic at broken lights, organising water deliveries and protecting infrastructure. That energy must be harnessed into structured participation, not left to crisis response.
If reform is to survive political change, it must transcend party manifestos and become a shared national programme with clear ownership and accountability.
The review of the White Paper on Local Government is an opportunity to reset the system. If the government continues to focus on recovery without fixing its capability, it will return next January with the same message.
Local government does not need more speeches. It requires fewer municipalities, clearer powers, stronger institutions and people who know how to execute.
That work starts at the bottom of the hierarchy. Everything else is noise.
Miyelani Holeni is the Group Chief Advisor at Ntiyiso Consulting Group and a respected thought leader and advocate for sustainable economic development in South Africa. He is currently pursuing his PhD at the University of Johannesburg Business School. With extensive experience in public policy, economic analysis, and local governance, Miyelani has dedicated his career to driving initiatives that promote inclusive growth and empower marginalised communities.
As a prominent speaker and commentator, he frequently engages in discussions on key economic issues, offering valuable insights into budgetary policy, infrastructure development, and both international and local governance. Miyelani’s work aims to foster collaboration between the public and private sectors, contributing to a more prosperous and equitable society.
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