Residents Are (Conditionally) Optimistic That Government Can Fix Our Municipalities
We Submitted. We Were Heard. We Are Shaping The Municipalities of The Future, Together
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Bahlali, last year, I ran a survey asking South Africans what they thought needed fixing in local government and invited you to tell government. Three hundred and forty-seven responded, and we submitted every single response, unedited, to the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. Twice.
At the time, I made one singular promise: collaborate with me to try and shape the municipalities of our dreams, and, in turn, I would spare no effort to make sure that what you’ve called for is heard by government, and seriously considered.
Well, we did it, together, and now we’ve taken it a step further.
Let’s indulge.
A Brief Recap
On 7 May 2026, COGTA published the Reviewed Draft White Paper on Local Government, a 124-page reform document that will shape the municipal system for the next generation. It proposes the single biggest package of reforms for our municipalities since 1998.
We clustered the responses received last year into 14 recommendation themes. Thus, these 14 represent BGI’s own synthesis of the public submissions received during last year’s survey. I was happy to see that five of the fourteen recommendation themes we developed from those 2025 responses appear in the draft revised White Paper.
One of government’s proposals in the revised draft, a proposal to abolish “political suitability” as a criterion for appointing Municipal Managers and replacing it with independent panels as well as employment contracts of up to ten years for MM’s, goes much further than even we had ambitiously asked for. There are other examples, too.
Mhlali, I do not think that it is a coincidence. From where I sit, I see it as what happens, and frankly what should happen, when ordinary South Africans engage seriously, from an informed perspective, with government policy processes.
If you’ve been keeping up with our work, you will also be aware that the revised draft also falls short in some places that matter, and these are not insignificant gaps. So, in preparing our response to COGTA’s request for further submissions, we went back to you, and you had more to say.
Between 17 and 27 May, we (now under the BGI banner) ran a follow-up survey on the draft White Paper. We showed respondents what was originally asked for or suggested in 2025, what government now proposes, and asked about the extent to which you were satisfied, if at all.
More South Africans completed the survey. I was excited, and I am so grateful, to see repeat participants (eleven of them, to be precise). These people came back, having participated in the original process, and decided to hold government to account a second time, but now with much more detail. Cumulatively, this brought the total number of unique South Africans who have participated across both surveys to over 400.
What was said this time was sharper and, in some parts, harder. Let me give you a few examples;
On “consequence management”: 68% of respondents were not satisfied with the draft’s proposals. This was the highest dissatisfaction rating of any question in the survey. People were specific to say they wanted criminal prosecutions, the recovery of stolen public assets and money, and lifetime bans from public office for those found to have stolen public money. The draft does not yet deliver that.
On municipal finances; only 14% of respondents fully accept the government’s argument that it cannot increase national transfers to municipalities without economic growth first. The majority position, articulated with striking precision in the optional text responses, is that the fiscal constraint is in part a consequence of the corruption within government, mismanagement and the misallocation of funds between National, Provincial and Local Government. Further, that using that failure (the failure to deal with the challenges) as a justification for underfunding municipalities is shifting the costs of Parliament and the State’s failure onto the already over-stretched residents. Residents reject that.
On government’s proposed implementation body: 92% of respondents do not trust a Cabinet-mandated body to hold the same government accountable. They called for independent oversight, inclusive of civil society, professional bodies, organised labour, and independent experts.
On the overall picture; only 6% of respondents were fully satisfied with the draft Revised White Paper. The plurality of respondents, at 32%, said it gets some things right but misses critical issues. The clear animating sentiment of this dataset, repeatedly expressed in the optional text responses, was conditional optimism. Abahlali believe that the draft is better than what came before, but they do not yet trust that it will be implemented. Curiously, this tracks with other research that indicates that residents simply don’t trust government enough. One such example is the Edelman Trust Barometer report of 2025. It found that residents gave government a trust score of 36 points (out of 100. By comparison, business scored 68 and Non-Governmental Organisations scored 63.
What We Told COGTA
And so, on the afternoon of 28 May, we sent our formal submission to the Department, in our own name, and on behalf of all the respondents. It included the quantitative and qualitative responses, submitted with respondents’ proxy consent. It included our formal policy positions on every chapter of the draft White Paper.
There were specific asks, such as automatic triggers for Provincial and National Government to intervene in municipalities in crisis, mandatory plain-language quarterly service delivery updates, as well as competency requirements for all councillor candidates.
We also told COGTA that a developmental state, in a developing country, cannot outsource its way to prosperity, and that, at the very least, the basics must be delivered directly by government, in-house.
We told them that the equitable share formula for the funding of municipalities must be reviewed, that funding local government is funding economic growth, and that the proposed transition management body’s reports must be published in plain language for all South Africans (not only tabled in Parliament, and written for policy professionals).
We told them that 92% of respondents do not trust government to hold itself accountable, and that, in fairness, this is a measured response to the documented history of neglect and the generally lackadaisical approach to the implementation of agreed reforms.
Finally, we told them, in the words of one of the respondents: “South Africans are not asking for perfect municipalities. They are asking for accountable, functional, and honest local government. This White Paper must not become another policy document that looks good on paper but changes nothing on the ground.”
What Comes Next
Well, the public comment period has closed (and our submission is in). The White Paper will now be finalised by the Department and submitted to Cabinet for final approval. We will monitor the final document against the draft, against our submissions, and against government’s own implementation roadmap.
In the meantime: thank you, thank you, and thank you. To everyone who participated, from 2025 to date (especially the return soldiers, those who came back and somehow still had a few more words for government), thank you.
To each and every one of you, you are the reason we do what we do. You are the reason that our work has any weight for government to seriously engage. You are the people who make it consequential. For that, I am eternally grateful for everything each of you has done with us in this process.
Oh, alongside the finalisation of the White Paper, government will release a few amendment Acts to give effect to some of what is currently proposed in the draft. You guessed it…we will be there, with you, every step out of the way as we fight hard to create the municipalities of our dreams.
Alright, that’s it for today. Be back soon and, if no one else has told you, we love you.
SC
Find out more about the Better Governance Initiative NPC by visiting our website: www.bettergovernance.org.za. There you will find out everything about what BGI is all about, our policies, as well as how to get involved. Together, we’ve already shown what active citizens can achieve. Let’s continue building a stronger, more accountable democracy and equitable society together.