Incoming local govts face immediate pressure to fix service delivery

The incoming local governments will face pressure to hit the ground running and address persistent service delivery issues across the country. Poor service delivery has remained a major concern in communities across South Africa for years.

South Africa held its sixth Local Government Elections this week. Municipal elections take place every five years, with all citizens aged 18 and older eligible to vote.

South African citizens have been calling for better service delivery which they say will help address some of the economic issues they are faced with.

In some places in the country, there are those who are still faced with load reduction due to poor infrastructure, theft and vandalism.

The Minister of Electricity Kgosientsho Ramokgopa says the quality of infrastructure is important.He says this is because without electricity distribution, local government will not be able to collect revenue- which leads to lack of service delivery.

“One of the major sources of revenue at local government is electricity. So, utilities, water and electricity, are a big source of income. If you are unable to provide electricity, it means your opportunity to generate revenue from electricity diminishes. So, it’s important that you are able to function well in distributing these products. But you also know that it is costly. If you don’t look after this, the system is going to fail, resulting in failures during extreme weather, when there’s wind. And we’re seeing it in many parts of the country. It has nothing to do with load reduction; it has everything to do with the quality of that infrastructure.”

Member of the National Assembly Mmusi Maimane has reiterated the importance of maintaining and improving infrastructure, saying poor infrastructure impacts heavily on vulnerable communities.

“So, this delivery is built on the backlog of sustainable infrastructure. Water losses in this country are averaging at about 40%, which is an indicator of failing water infrastructure. Electricity losses are about 20-odd percent, 23%. So, then the distribution of energy, when you come to poor communities, particularly in townships, you end up with people in communities saying to themselves they’re still experiencing load reduction because of poor infrastructure. So, it cannot be underscored more to say, let’s spend on infrastructure, particularly in order to address the distribution network, but to deal with communities that were left behind.”

Last month, President Cyril Ramaphosa launched the revised White Paper on Local Government. The paper aims to reform service delivery, governance and financial management in municipalities.