Service delivery or death — ANC’s plan to fix its municipalities or face 2026 election hammering
ANC President Cyril Ramaphosa told party councillors that they must adopt a “service delivery improvement or death” attitude in their municipalities.
Ramaphosa delivered the party’s action plan to improve service delivery to over 4,600 councillors from around the country during a roll-call convention at the FNB Stadium in Soweto on Monday.
“It is unacceptable that we, as councillors and leaders, can have water leaks and sewage running in the streets.”
“As of today, your marching orders are that when a water leak and sewage are running in the street, you must be the first to know and do something within 48 hours,” Ramaphosa said.
He warned that any councillor who opposes the party’s attempts to “reform service delivery” in its municipalities will be shown the door.
“Those comrades who refuse to cooperate and act in the interest of the people, we will show them the door,” the ANC leader said.
Most senior ANC officials have conceded that if they do not turn the tide on their performance, the party is likely to be obliterated in next year’s local government elections.
The party already lost its outright majority in the general elections last year, falling to around 40% of the vote.
With the ANC typically performing worse in local government elections and service delivery across the country ailing, experts predict that the ANC are in for another shock.
While most of Ramaphosa’s instructions to councillors were concerned with poor water delivery and sewage spills, he also said that municipalities must address refuse removal, sanitation, theft, and vandalism issues.
Ramaphosa pointed to the Ditsobotla Municipality in the North West as an example of a place where municipal collapse proved quite costly for the surrounding area.
“If we don’t tend to the needs of the people, then we die, as in the case of Ditsobotla,” the ANC president said.
The Ditsobotla Local Municipality was recently placed under National Administration following a collapse of basic service delivery, political instability, corruption, and financial mismanagement in the district.
The municipality’s failures significantly impacted local business and investment in the area, with Ramaphosa pointing to the closure of Clover’s flagship cheese factory in Lichtenburg.
The factory was closed in 2021, citing poor service delivery and infrastructure problems.
Ramaphosa also said municipalities must learn from others who have succeeded in local governance.
“As councils, we need to learn from others how to turn things around. Let us do cross-pollination. A strength we have is that many of our councillors are doing amazing things,” he said.
Cooperate, or you’re out
This follows a meeting of the party’s National Executive Committee (NEC) over the weekend, where it addressed the state of local government, service delivery challenges, and interventions led.
On Sunday, Ramaphosa said his party would act against municipal representatives who fail to do their jobs.
“If the people who are deployed do not execute the tasks they are deployed for, they must be removed. The same is true for those who commit acts of malfeasance and steal from the public purse.”
“Municipalities’ failure to deliver even the most basic of services, either due to incapacity or mismanagement, can be so severe in some places that water and sewage run through the streets of our townships and towns.”
Ramaphosa argued that this lack of performance also affects the party’s image, which must soon be resolved.
“This failure at the local government level feeds into a narrative about a failing and declining ANC, and thus provides further ammunition for our detractors.”
The ANC president also criticised municipalities for outsourcing services, which are often flawed and result in “the Auditor General issuing disclaimer opinions and other reports.”
According to the Auditor General of South Africa’s municipal audit outcomes for the 2023/24 financial year, only 41 of the country’s 257 municipalities received a clean opinion, or 16%.
Most either received an unqualified opinion (99) or a qualified opinion (90). Only six audits were adverse, with 11 receiving disclaimer opinions. There are still 10 outstanding audits.
The report found that 218 municipalities did not have the basic controls to review and monitor compliance.
“Weak controls are often due to the leadership tone set by the council, the mayor and municipal management,” it said.
Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s recent response to a Parliamentary question revealed that municipalities have accounted for R1.086 trillion in fruitless, wasteful, irregular, and unauthorised expenditures over the past five years.
Fruitless and wasteful expenditure climbed from R4 billion in 2019/20 to R19 billion in 2022/23 before dropping to R17 billion in 2023/24.
Irregular expenditure steadily increased, from R74 billion in 2019/20 to R137 billion in 2023/24.
Unauthorised expenditure peaked at R107 billion in 2021/22 and stood at R81 billion in 2023/24.
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cirilkie. Too little, too late. Your voters are furious with you.