Municipal reform must be backed by increased funding, says SALGA

The South African Local Government Association (SALGA) has welcomed renewed efforts to strengthen local government but says meaningful reform must be supported by increased funding.

In his State of the Nation Address on Thursday, President Cyril Ramaphosa committed to addressing the deep-rooted challenges facing municipalities, particularly those failing to provide basic services like water to communities.

Ramaphosa said government would soon go after municipal managers in their personal capacity for failing to ensure a steady water supply to residents.

SALGA President Bheke Stofile emphasised that while the association supports the proposed reforms, they cannot be sustained on the current 9.5% budget allocation to local government.

“The only thing that we are worried about is if you do all these reforms with the current allocation of 9.5%, you are worsening off the local government because it’s against the constitutional spirit that the reforms for water as part of the attraction of revenue in municipalities is a bit of a challenge.”