Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Velenkosini Hlabisa, has called for a differentiated approach to tackling the challenges facing municipalities.
This includes improving funding, providing better remuneration for councillors, and attracting skilled staff to rural areas.
“We need to adopt a style where our municipalities will be run like businesses. But to do so, we need to take a bold and new approach on structuring funding and remuneration of councillors, because if our councillors are paid peanuts, they will spend most of their time on other jobs and only pay lip service as councillors,” Hlabisa said.
The Minister was speaking at a high-level dialogue with political parties in South Africa as part of the ongoing review of the 1998 White Paper on Local Government.
Hlabisa said the remuneration of councillors, municipal managers, and Section 56 employees should be a topic for discussion.
“If you want to attract them to deep rural municipalities, there should be a discussion that, to attract competent engineers, competent accountants and competent municipal managers from big cities to deep rural municipalities, the remuneration must compensate those people so that they can go and serve our rural municipalities.”
Government officials and relevant stakeholders should engage with honesty while reviewing the White Paper and come up with recommendations on these important issues.
In April, Hlabisa officially published a discussion document on the Review of the 1998 White Paper on Local Government.
This document, published under Notice No. 6118 (Gazette: 52498), initiated a national discussion aimed at producing a revised White Paper on Local Government by March 2026.
The launch of the review process involved over 300 delegates from various sectors, with political parties having until 30 June 2025 to submit their contributions.
The review process aims to inspire fresh thinking, facilitate honest reflection, and promote decisive action toward establishing a local government system that effectively serves the people of South Africa.
The gathering stressed the need for political parties to engage in shaping the future of municipalities.
The Minister took the time to highlight the poor performance of many municipalities, citing audit outcomes, financial mismanagement, and distressed municipalities.
“We also know that the public holds the opinion that the majority of municipalities are not doing well. There are indeed municipalities that are doing well, even if it may not be said, excellent.
“Unfortunately, these few well-performing municipalities are overshadowed by the majority that are not doing well. Year after year, the audit outcomes show that few municipalities get a clean bill.”
The Minister acknowledged the essential role of political parties and expressed eagerness for their contributions and involvement.
“We can improve the White Paper on Local Government. Local government is where policies become services, promises become infrastructure, and governance becomes tangible.
“Local government is at the coalface of service delivery and the closest to the people; it is the sphere that must be strengthened in terms of human resources, capacitated in terms of capabilities, and be made financially resourced to focus on maximum service delivery.”
In addition, he stated that the involvement of traditional and Khoi-San leaders in local government must be engaged to ensure their maximum participation and contribution in advancing democracy and service delivery.
