The ANC has always been a meritocracy – Mashatile

Deputy President Paul Mashatile said that cadre deployment is not behind the poor performance of many South African municipalities.

Answering questions in the National Council of Provinces, the deputy president acknowledged that many municipalities are poorly run. 

“It is true that a number of our municipalities are in dire straits. Some of them are not able to provide basic services,” he said. 

Mashatile added that while there are a number of reasons for this, one is a lack of skilled municipal leaders.

This, he insists, is not caused by ANC cadre deployment, but is rather the result of local communities electing unqualified leaders. 

“The ANC does not deploy people without skills. I know when people hear the words cadre deployment, they think they lack the skills that are required,” he said. 

“Meritocracy is not new to the ANC. In fact, it’s always been our guiding principle,” he said. 

On a local level, Mashatile said the government can’t control who is elected as ward councillors.

“We involve communities and sometimes communities elect people who, once they get there, struggle to perform their duties,” he said. 

At the national executive level, Mashatile stated that all the ANC’s executive mayors undergo an interview process before their names are put forward as mayors.

This process also applies to municipal managers. “It is a very rigorous process,” he said. 

Mashatile said that the government has instructed the Department of Local Government to intervene when people without the requisite skills are appointed to leadership. 

“So rest assured that the intervention is there and it is working,” he said. 

Municipalities in ‘total collapse’

Guidelines issued by the South African Local Government Association (SALGA) outlines that Municipal Managers are required by law to have the relevant skills and qualifications. 

Applicants for the role are required to have a higher education qualification at NQF Level 6 and must complete and pass a competency assessment before their name is put forward

Despite these regulations, ActionSA Deputy President Mbahare Kekana accused the ANC’s cadre deployment strategies as the reason behind municipalities collapsing. 

“The municipalities of Ditsobotla, Ngaka Modiri Molema District, Mamusa, Naledi, Dr Ruth Segomotsi Mompati District, and Rustenburg in the North-West, are in total collapse,” he said. 

He added that the situation is so dire that in many municipalities, ill-conceived cadre deployments continue with impunity. 

“In Mamusa, more than R3 million continued to be spent from the municipal bank account while both the CFO and City Manager were on suspension,” he said. 

In Rustenburg, a multimillion-rand investment in the Rustenburg “Rapid Transport” has little to show of a return on investment, according to Kekana. “None of this is right,” he said.

In the Auditor General’s latest reports, only 41 of South Africa’s 257 municipalities, 16%, achieved a clean audit.

One hundred and seven municipalities received either a qualified audit with findings, an adverse audit with findings, or a disclaimed audit, indicating some level of mismanagement.

A further 10 did not submit reports for the 2023/2024 financial year.

According to the Department of Cooperative Governance and Tradiditional Affairs, Between 2010 and May 2025, 168 municipalities, 65%, have been placed under administration for failing to fulfil their obligation to provide basic services.

The latest to receive national intervention is Ditsobotla Local Municipality in the North West, following reports of a collapse in basic service delivery, political instability, corruption, and financial mismanagement.

In March, Secretary General of the ANC Fikile Mbulula said that the era of cadre deployment of incompetent individuals in government positions would come to an end.

He said that only the “crème de la crème” would be appointed to public roles going forward and promised that the ANC was undertaking a comprehensive skills audit of all senior municipal managers. 

Kekana is skeptical that this process has filtered out incompetent individuals, and called for an acceleration of the professionalisation of public services. 

“Decisive action must also be taken against suspected criminals still roaming the corridors of local government in these municipalities.”