Cyril Ramaphosa launches White Paper after admitting local government is broken
President Cyril Ramaphosa has unveiled far-reaching reforms to South Africa’s local government system, proposing a differentiated model of municipal powers and functions, stricter regulation of water and electricity services and stronger financial controls to address persistent service delivery failures.
The Revised White Paper on Local Government was launched at the Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre in Ekurhuleni on Thursday and sets out a fundamental reassessment of how municipalities are structured, financed, managed and held accountable.
Too many communities have grown accustomed to services that are unreliable, infrastructure that is deteriorating and municipal administrations that are unresponsive. This cannot continue.
The President noted that maintenance needed to become a planned, funded and monitored obligation rather than an afterthought once infrastructure had broken down. He further emphasized the need to protect citizens from the consequences of political instability within municipal councils.
Our people must never be held hostage by political instability.