From deep-rooted systemic collapse to missing billions, sewage spills, illegal tenders and vacant posts in Free State municipalities. Twenty-three municipalities came under scrutiny during a joint oversight visit last week to account for these fail ings, marking the beginning of a new era of in tergovernmental accountability. In this article, Dr Zweli Mkhize outlines the joint oversight delega t ion’s observations during the oversight visit and lists some urgent reforms that could turn the crisis into a course correction. South Africa’s municipalities are intended to be the frontlines of public service delivery – the engine rooms of local development and daily wellbeing. Yet, in many parts of the country, they have become sites of dysfunction, decay and despair. Nowhere has this been more evident than in the Free State, where systemic collapse has made basic services a privilege rather than a right. But this month, Parliament and the Free State Provin cial Legislature took a bold step to draw a line in the sand. In an unprecedented show of intergovernmental resolve, three parliamentary committees: the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), the Standing Committee on Public Accounts (SCOPA) and the Standing Committee on the Auditor-General, led by me as Chairperson of the COGTA committee, embarked on a joint oversight mission to the province where our counterparts in the Free State Legislature joined us. Twenty-three municipalities were called to account. The scale of failure they revealed was staggering, but so too was the clarity with which the delegation demanded reform and consequences. A Sobering Reality The facts are damning. Municipalities have racked up billions in unpaid debt. One municipality owes over R8 billion to a water board. Others have failed to pay pension contributions deducted from workers’ salaries, and some paid millions in often unauthorised overtime, while service delivery has all but collapsed. Roads are impassable in some ar eas, water systems are dysfunctional and waste ser vices are in disarray. In some instances, entire towns are grappling with sewage spills, and electricity is available for only a few hours each day. One by one, the municipalities came to account as committee members’ interrogation exposed the rot beneath the surface: litigation driven by unpaid service providers, unauthorised financial commit ments, irregular tenders and decades-long impu nity. In Maluti-a-Phofung Local Municipality, a de fault judgement for a R27 million debt was granted based on a fraudulent acknowledgement of debt, signed by an acting municipal manager with family . That manager remains employed. In the same municipality, despite a R2.2 billion allocation from the Department of Water and Sanitation, no infrastructure had been laid. Chronic outages, unpaid Eskom bills and a water distribu t ion system so broken that consumers had turned to boreholes painted a picture of systemic collapse. In Mangaung, the dysfunction is so entrenched that, despite national intervention since 2022, it has failed to implement more than a quarter of its finan cial recovery plan. We found a 61 per cent vacancy rate coupled with R2.5 billion in personnel costs, and an inability to link overtime to actual work done. Pit latrines, decaying roads and non-function al water meters added to the grim picture. Mean while, the Auditor-General has flagged its inability to account for billions in conditional grant funding. These are not isolated crises. They are a culmina t ion of years of neglect, political interference and administrative erosion. Collapse from Within Two narratives emerged from the oversight – the f irst, of municipalities hamstrung by structural dis advantage – rural towns with low revenue bases, high unemployment and little capacity to attract skilled staff. These municipalities are caught in a vicious cycle of underdevelopment, reliant almost entirely on national transfers. The second, more damning narrative is that of municipalities with viable revenue streams – those capable of sustainable governance – that are in stead hamstrung by internal sabotage. Bloated staff complements, politically connected appointments, non-functional audit committees, and a lack of con sequence management have eroded public trust and institutional stability. As I summarised during the visit, “It is a kind of self-inflicted injury.” Indeed, this is not failure due to resource scarcity alone, but also due to compromised leadership, administrative negligence and a culture of impunity. EPWP Abuse: A Litmus Test for Ethical Govern ance The case of Matjhabeng Local Municipality pro vides a powerful case study of what is broken – and what is required to fix it. Following allegations that councillors were unlawfully drawing stipends under the Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP), the Minister of Public Works and Infrastructure, Mr Dean MacPherson, suspended the municipali ty’s EPWP funding. While we welcome decisive in tervention, this move risks punishing the innocent along with the guilty. Hundreds of impoverished EPWP workers, many earning just R2 600 a month, will be left in limbo. The committee supports a thorough investiga t ion, but accountability must not come at the ex pense of the vulnerable. “We cannot allow the poor to suffer for the misdeeds of a few.” Investigations must be targeted, transparent and evidence-based. This case highlights the need for rigorous oversight, as mandated by the Constitution, which protects both institutional integrity and the rights of citizens. A New Model: Collaborative Oversight Many have asked what makes this oversight visit different from previous attempts to address munic ipal dysfunction. This time around, it is a coordinat ed, multi-sphere approach. By bringing together MPs, MECs, the Office of the Premier, the Speaker and relevant committees of the provincial legisla tures, it breaks down the siloed approach that has allowed accountability to slip through the cracks of intergovernmental relations. It sends a strong mes sage: the separation of powers is not an excuse for the separation of responsibility. In addition, municipalities will now be required to submit quarterly progress reports, aligned explicitly with the Auditor-General’s recommendations. Fail ure to act will trigger disciplinary or even criminal proceedings. Moreover, a consolidated oversight report will be tabled in Parliament to ensure trans parency, follow-through and public scrutiny. This visit is not the end – it is the beginning of a new cycle of monitoring with North West as our next stop. Within six months, municipalities will be re-evaluated to check progress. We hope that when the Auditor-General next visits the province, there will be measurable progress. The Way Forward In addressing these failures, we have proposed 10 interlinked interventions. First, audit oversight structures must be rebuilt. Every municipality must have a functioning municipal public accounts com mittee (MPAC), an audit committee and a discipli nary board. MECs must ensure that all disclaimers, unfunded budgets and missed deadlines for submit t ing financial reports to the AG are eliminated. Second, all cases of unauthorised, irregular, fruit less and wasteful expenditure must be investigat ed and acted upon, as this was one of the failings across municipalities. Third, consequence manage ment must be institutionalised, and wrongdoing must carry penalties. Fourth, municipalities need robust financial systems and timely reporting mech anisms. Fifth, acting appointments must cease, with t imelines for filling permanent posts. Sixth, critical vacancies in finance, audit and infrastructure must be filled. Seventh, political interference must be stopped, while stability and professionalism must be enforced. Eighth, financially distressed munic ipalities need tailored, intensive support. Ninth, corruption must be tackled decisively through inter nal and criminal processes. Finally, audit readiness must be embedded in daily governance, not as an emergency measure but as standard practice. These 10 pillars are not suggestions – they are im peratives. Oversight must be followed by enforce ment. We must institutionalise quarterly reporting, track progress and keep Parliament and the public informed. Oversight, in its truest form, is a commitment to the Constitution. We do not perform it to find fault, but to restore trust. The people of the Free State, and South Africa as a whole, deserve municipalities that are ethical, capable and people-centred. As public representatives, we must take collective responsibility and ensure nothing less.
A photo depicting the poor service delivery in Free State municipalities Picture: Baagedi Setlhora ties to the service provider.
