BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso said business remained committed to partnering with government to improve municipal performance, similar to the collaboration that has helped stabilise Eskom and improve Transnet's operations.
Business Leadership South Africa (BLSA) has warned that deteriorating municipal governance has become one of the biggest threats to South Africa's economic growth, saying businesses are increasingly being forced to compensate for government failures at significant cost.
Speaking during PSG's Think Big series on Tuesday, BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso said the upcoming 2026 local government elections represented far more than a political contest, arguing that they would determine whether municipalities can once again become engines of economic growth and attract much-needed investment.
"I think this year's municipal elections are rather important because when you look at the state of our municipalities, a lot of them are seriously eroding and deteriorating," Mavuso said.
"A lot of them are failing to provide the basic services for which they were designed. From a business perspective, this is particularly concerning because even some of the bigger metros are failing, which places a huge burden on businesses to increasingly manage around state failure."
