Dear Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs,


The GNU Must Use Section 153 to Turn Municipalities into Engines of Growth and Jobs


The Government of National Unity should begin by issuing binding regulations that designate Proportional Representation councillors in every municipality as the legal lead for Section 153 of the Constitution. That single reform would convert a dormant constitutional clause into a daily performance test for local government.

South Africa faces unemployment near 30 percent. Youth joblessness is substantially worse. GDP growth has averaged roughly 0.8 percent since 2015 according to Statistics South Africa.

The Constitution, however, provides the framework for a legal and substantial response.

Section 153 requires municipalities to structure their administration, budgetting and planning around basic needs on the one hand and promoting social and economic development and participation in national and provincial programmes on the other.

For more than two decades that constitutional obligation has too often been treated as aspiration rather than enforceable duty which it is.

The consequences are visible across the country. Infrastructure continues to deteriorate. Service delivery is collapsing. Cadre deployment has enormously weakened administrative capacity. Oversight mechanisms too often fail to hold decision makers accountable. Local government has become a brake on economic activity when it should have been functioning as an engine of growth and a lure for fixed direct investment.

The Motlanthe High Level Panel on the Assessment of Key Legislation and the Acceleration of Fundamental Change identified many of these failures in 2017. Its findings showed that legislation intended to build a developmental state frequently faltered in implementation. Poverty, unemployment and inequality persisted because institutional performance failed to match constitutional expectations.

No political party in the intervening nine years did anything to translate those constitutional obligations into measurable municipal programmes and outputs.

Local government will always be the coalface of economic inclusion. National growth ambitions cannot succeed when municipalities are failing.

The GNU's Statement of Intent correctly identifies stable local government as central to economic recovery and the fostering of investment confidence. The challenge now is to convert political statements into enforceable systems and measurable outcomes.

Make PR councillors development drivers

Proportional Representation councillors are not tied to individual wards. They represent broader political mandates and can provide specialised oversight capacity and have definitive roles in promoting social and economic development.

The Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs should issue regulations under the Municipal Structures Act that designate PR councillors in every municipality as the Section 153 enablers.

Such councillors should be represented in a mandatory Section 153 Oversight Committee responsible for promoting social and economic development and monitoring whether municipal planning and expenditure are achieving measurable developmental outcomes.

The committee would continuously assess Integrated Development Plans, budgets and performance reports against clearly defined benchmarks linked to social and economic targets, affordability and service reliability.

Those benchmarks must focus on all the outcomes that municipalities directly control. Measures could include the number of days required to approve building plans, the percentage of supplier invoices paid within 30 days, the reliability and affordability of water and electricity supply measured in hours per week, the number of trading permits issued to informal businesses, the number of mixed use zones being created, the extent to which the NDPG and other grants were being leveraged and the kilometres of road maintained relative to expenditure.

Municipal performance becomes meaningful when measured against practical outcomes experienced by residents and businesses.

The committee should publish quarterly scorecards allowing residents, investors and provincial authorities to assess performance transparently. National Treasury should create a Section 153 Performance Component within the Local Government Equitable Share framework. Municipalities that meet developmental benchmarks should receive the full allocation. Municipalities that consistently fail should forfeit part of that allocation until performance improves. Funding incentives will alter behaviour most effectively.

The committee can also be tasked to research innovative funding and community participation through sweat equity and stokvels.

In 2023 the Midvaal Local Municipality reduced building plan approval times to 11 days and recorded increased SMME activity in the months that followed. Cape Town also has swift approval mechanisms. That