National Treasury’s decision to withhold the July equitable share transfer from 69 municipalities follows more than a decade of ignored Auditor-General warnings on municipal deterioration and increasing irregular expenditure says Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) CEO Busi Mavuso.
In her latest weekly newsletter, Mavuso says municipal collapse – now hitting three of South Africa's eight metros, including Johannesburg, Mangaung and Nelson Mandela Bay – directly reflects a failure of leadership and accountability.
“Local government politicians, unfortunately, have largely proven themselves to be a serious part of the problem rather than making any sort of progress in finding solutions,” she says.
At the time of the 2021 municipal elections, Mavuso notes that she wrote that municipalities needed the right people in place, warning that the core problem was fundamentally a human resource one.
“Unfortunately, politicians continued to focus on factional battles, power grabs and vested interests. Service delivery is the casualty, and that always hits underdeveloped areas the hardest,” she adds.
