Local government experts have welcomed the ANC’s bold plans to strengthen service delivery at the local government level but say the strategy will not work if plans are only spoken about and not executed.

The party announced new plans to deal with service delivery at its the NEC Lekgotla gathering in Boksburg at the weekend.

However, the experts have cautioned against the party going it all alone and without the involvement of members of the Government of National Unity (GNU) and other stakeholders who have a say at the local government level.

President Cyril Ramaphosa, speaking on the opening day of the ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) Lekgotla, pledged the party’s commitment to local governance as they gear up for the 2026 local government elections. This commitment follows the alarming findings from the Auditor General, which highlighted significant challenges facing local municipalities.

Ramaphosa echoed the same sentiments in his closing address on Sunday, where he said this new emphasis on strengthening local government forms part of the Local Government Service Delivery Action Plan.

At the centre of the framework is the ability of residents to report service delivery failures and corruption so they can be escalated to the relevant municipality, province, or specific departments for action.

“It is encouraging that the commissions that were constituted as part of this lekgotla have heeded the call to focus their attention on clear plans with responsibilities, time frames, and targets. As such, the organisation will use these markers to hold all public representatives and deployees accountable. This is not negotiable. This must be done,” Ramaphosa emphasised.

Miyelani Holeni, chief adviser at Ntiyiso Consulting Group, welcomed Ramaphosa’s commitment, highlighting the continuity from the President’s January 8 statement, which emphasised the urgent need to rectify local government issues.

“This is not new. He also said it last year. The repetition matters because it signals that the problem is no longer about intent but about execution.”

Reflecting on their extensive engagements with over 50 municipalities over the past two decades, Holeni pointed out a critical flaw in the system: the absence of a constructed capability to effectively manage and deliver services.

“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,” he noted.

Professor Purshottama Sivanarain Reddy,  a local government specialist at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, indicated that for this new strategy to work, it needs the support of other parties within and outside the current GNU

“It cannot be a single party effort; the other political parties that are part of the governmental machinery will have to be drawn in, as the challenges experienced in local government are being faced by the South African populace in general,” he said.

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Reddy said that poor service delivery, especially at the local government level, is due to the unresponsive and often arrogant public servants across this sphere of government.

“Much of this has to do with poor delivery of basic services, more specifically water, electricity, and housing, and municipal functionaries who are arrogant and non-responsive. Over the years, there have been many government interventions at the local level, but there has been limited success to date,” Reddy said.

siyabonga.sithole@inl.co.za

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