BOSA will make submissions to the review of Local Government White Paper

Build One South Africa (BOSA) welcomes today’s announcement by the Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Velenkosini Hlabisa, that the nearly 30-year-old White Paper on Local Government will finally be reviewed.

This is a long overdue step toward fixing a critical tier of government that has collapsed under the weight of corruption, financial mismanagement, and outdated policy frameworks.

The current White Paper, drafted in 1998, is no longer fit for purpose. It was designed for a different era, one where population growth, urbanisation, and the complex demands of governance were far less acute than they are today.

It falls short in addressing the financial mismanagement of municipalities, the lack of professional leadership, and the political interference that has undermined good governance for decades.

BOSA believes that reviewing the White Paper must be more than a bureaucratic box-ticking exercise. It must lead to urgent and concrete reforms.

We will be making the following submissions as part of the review process:

1. A New Municipal Funding Model: Municipalities must be financially viable and sustainable. We need a new equitable funding formula that takes into account infrastructure backlogs, economic disparities, and the revenue-generating capacity of different communities.
2. Leadership Audits: Competent, ethical, and qualified individuals must be appointed to key municipal positions. BOSA calls for immediate leadership audits across all municipalities to remove unqualified or compromised officials and restore professional management.
3. Accountability and Consequence Management: Municipal managers and councillors must be held accountable for service delivery failures. Where there is corruption or dereliction of duty, consequences must follow. This must include suspensions, dismissals, and criminal charges.
4. Community-Centric Governance: Local government must return to its core purpose: serving people. This means enforcing ward-level service delivery plans, enabling greater public participation in budgeting and planning processes, and making councillors accessible and accountable to their communities.

Fixing local government is a prerequisite for rebuilding trust in government and delivering dignity to our people. BOSA stands ready to work with all stakeholders in reimagining a local government system that is transparent, efficient, and centred on service delivery