How to hold local government accountable | Paul Smith

In this interview Paul Smith, the Head of Local Governance at Kagiso Trust, talks to Chris Steyn about the launch of the #StartWhereYouAre Playbook, the anchor tool of its nationwide #StartWhereYouAre active citizenship and voter education campaign leading up to the 2026 Local Government Elections. He describes how the playbook can be a tool for shifting the relationship between citizens and their government from passive acceptance to active engagement. The practical guide shows South Africans exactly how to move from wanting to participate to exactly what they can do. The playbook uses a comic-strip format with relatable characters and everyday scenarios to demonstrate the citizen action cycle: Notice → Understand → Report → Organise → Follow up.”We have to think carefully about how we sever the incestuous relationship between administration and politics. We have to break the link between those who have got to deliver and those who have to do oversight… Once we have a government in place, it's no longer worth moaning. It's about how we work with that government and start creating the future we desire as a collective.”

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Edited transcript of the interview

Chris Steyn (00:00.994)

Kagiso Trust has launched a comic-format playbook, to guide South Africans on exactly how to engage with local government. With me is Paul Smith, the Head of Local Governance Support. Welcome, Paul.

Paul Smith (00:19.045)

Good afternoon. Thanks for having me, Chris.

Chris Steyn (00:22.626)

How was the guide inspired?

Paul Smith (00:26.203)

The journey's been quite significant. I've been with Kagiso Trust now for about fifteen years and we initially were supporting local government technically through revenue management and data management. And what transpired was I was challenged by the board to do something different because Kagiso Trust is about marginalized communities and trying to do something different for that would have a greater impact on the community as a whole. 

And, we were doing a number of revenue management sites at the time, and I chose a kind of municipality, which was one of the test sites or one of the revenue management sites that we're working at because of the relationships there. And I started just talking to people in the community to find out, you know, what would be the catalyst for change in terms of building the relationship between local government and community and what would be the catalyst for better local economic development. And so through that, we sort of embarked on a journey. It was a process more than a clear idea of what the outcome might be because we needed something different.

And so having spoken to many people in community and business and in government, we sort of coined the frame of radical collaboration. We needed to try to train people in skills and how to collaborate. And that led to us developing a collaborative governance model. And the collaborative governance model is about citizens actively taking up the agency and working with local government as opposed to local against local government in an equal sort of relationship that would enable the co-creation and the co-implementation of of programmes and development so that everyone could have a role in in in participating in the futures that communities desired. 

And this particular campaign now is all about reinforcing the collaborative governance model and making sure that communities take up their rightful role in local democracy and start playing a meaningful role…

Paul Smith (02:51.902)

…and part in their local development.

Chris Steyn (02:56.235)

And what practical steps do you advise South Africans to take to become active citizens?

Paul Smith (03:04.734)

I think yeah, it's a really important question because over the years we've just seen the gap between government and community widen. And we've seen many incidents where communities have tried to do government work and these have been reasonably successful, but short lived. I mean generally these things take a lot of money. 

And so we do advocate that citizens get more involved and the active step is to really get organized. The first step to getting involved is turning up to the poll and voting. And November the fourth is the local government election and we've seen a decline in poll attendance over the years. And so one of the first things we have to do is give people some sense of hope back to take them that will encourage them to go back to the polls and exercise democracy.

The second thing is we need to ask citizens to think deeply about responsible voting. Through the revision of the white paper and local government, through several two hundred and eighty odd dialogues with various businesses and communities, the biggest word, the word used the most in all those dialogues was governance.

And so it's very clear that the roles the communities are disenchanted with with the government and so communities have to to get better organised, take up their rightful role, stand together and then once they've voted for their particular leaders to start holding them to account.

And back to that pilot site, we did some scenario planning with Gibbs Business School and Rhodes Business School in the area. And the two critical factors for turnaround in South Africa for small towns in South Africa is one is political will to transform, and the second one is our ability to work together. Those weren't jobs, it wasn't better electricity or water or…

Paul Smith (05:30.941)

…no potholes and etcetera. It was those two factors. And so if we can convince politicians, those they elected, to exercise their right as a community leader to engage community better and help community organise themselves and capacitate community and we can get communities to depolarise and stand together around common purpose, I think we have a better prospect of a a prosperous outcome for for most communities over time.

Chris Steyn (06:05.006)

Paul, what checklist or checklists do you include for the different stages of the election cycle?

Paul Smith (06:14.004)

I think through the White Paper process and through our sort of own work in many municipalities, South Africa has a people problem. So we see that local communities are becoming disenchanted with mainstream politics. We see the emergence of many…

Paul Smith (06:42.268)

…independent local parties in this next election. We saw the trend starting last year in Makana municipality. There was a party called the Citizens Front that stood for the first time. And I think they acquired nineteen percent of their vote. I think that trend's going to continue this year. And so that the tick list for me is for people to first of all identify those leaders that are authentically interested in community development, that have community at heart. And it's not to say that the people in mainstream politics don't feel that way. I think there's many politicians that do feel that way. And unfortunately, political culture is dominated by ten percent of probably narcissistic politicians that want to control the process. So that would be one of the first things: I would ask communities to check who they're voting for, identify whether these people are authentically committed to community development, come from the community, that they're serving, not from outside the community. We often see that the proportional representative councillor in and on council come from other towns and cities and are placed in communities in various councils. 

The second thing on the checklist is I would suggest that communities organise themselves for post elections. So going to the poll is the next thing, cast your vote, and then post elections, start organising yourself as a community in an invented structure, not ward committees or any others, because those are pretty politically dominated at the moment and they're not really functional. And organize yourself in a civic coalition that's apolitical, that is committed to working with government for the community and through that structure try and start holding the government to account. Now the interesting thing in Makana was that they did form what was called the Makana Circle of Unity. And that Circle of Unity organised themselves into various substructures, looking at local economic development, looking at security, looking at education, looking at health and…

Paul Smith (09:09.32)

…wellness of community, gender based violence, et cetera. And food security was another one. And these small clusters of people got together and started working with the government very successfully during the COVID period. And it proved to us that, you know, when you do get the right people around the table with the right intentions, you get a very positive outcome.

And so those people that communities choose to lead them and organise themselves have to have the ability to shift from being egocentric in their thinking to ecosystem centric and doing what's for the greater good of the community. 

And I think one of the big challenges is that business has to also transform. It's no longer going alone. It's no longer good enough to have a borehole and solar power and run your business in isolation of the community. I think it's really important that business takes a broader perspective of prosperity in the greater region. 

And then there was a story in Makana that stood out for me. A restaurant owner said they don't really care about what local government's doing 'cause they've got gas, they've got a borehole and they've got solar power. And they would be all right. And two years later they closed down. The patrons that were supposed to go to that restaurant, couldn't afford it or had moved out of town. So the business failed. So there were lessons in that for me. So business has to transform 'cause all business will be more prosperous if the community is prosperous.

Chris Steyn (10:53.378)

Why did you settle on a comic strip?

Paul Smith (10:57.554)

Yeah, comic strip is I mean it's really a communication approach. And I think it's simple. It's easy to read. I think it can be simply digested by a wide range of voters. And I think that sometimes we get a little too complex about these issues and we use jargon and words that nobody can really define and understand. And so I think a comic really allows us to put the intentions of collaborative governance into simple terms that can be shared across all society.

Chris Steyn (11:48.108)

Is it being published in all languages? All our official languages?

Paul Smith (11:51.091)

It will be published in most of our official languages. It is quite late in the process - and so we do intend putting in other languages and it's also gonna be shared via social media, it's gonna be on main media platforms, it'll be through in print format. 

And so we just need to be fully aware of how people receive messaging in different communities and also in the in the languages that people receive messages.

Chris Steyn (12:26.702)

Where would ordinary citizens get hold of it?

Paul Smith (12:32.67)

Well there is going to be for those who have social media, there will be QR codes shared on various platforms. It will be available on websites, it will be distributed through media outlets and our partners. 

I don't have the exact plan of distribution, but the more we talk about it, the more we show it. 

We have to find ways of using local radio stations to get to local communities. We have to go through institutions that are recognized and are influential and credible, ethical. And so we will be using many religious institutions associated with the South African Council of Churches to distribute this as well. We hope it finds its way onto the pulpit in many churches, to encourage people to go to the polls and do what's right and to act responsibly. 

So yes, we're looking forward to and obviously the target of this is also youth. I mean that's probably our biggest non-performer in terms of poll turnouts, people who have lost hope in the future. So that will be our target.

Chris Steyn (14:00.856)

What else would you like to tell South Africans about the guide?

Paul Smith (14:08.814)

I think we are at a pivotal point in South Africa's future and and you know, we always need to think twenty years ahead. And whatever we do today will only manifest in twenty years time. And so we need to think really hard and fast about the quality of people we want to choose and put in power and who we want to attract into the political environment.

I think the other thing we've got to think carefully about is how, you know, to transform local government, we have to think carefully about how we sever the incestuous relationship between administration and politics. We have to break the link between those who have got to deliver and those who have to do oversight. 

We not only have to focus on the local government environment, but we have to focus on the local system, local government system because we suffer from the consequences of system failure. So we have to make sure that we deal with the system in its entirety and hold those accountable at a local level, at a provincial level, and at a national level for what they do. 

But I think the change that we're hoping for can only be achieved if people take the time to go to the polls. I mean we get the government we deserve, we vote for.

You know, so once we have a government in place, it's no longer worth moaning. It's about how we work with that government and start creating the future we desire as a collective. I think on the whole we're always gonna be more than the sum of the parts. The communal planning. We need to train people, we need to teach people how to be collaborative. We talk about it, but it's a skill that one can learn..

Paul Smith (16:01.788)

And so as Kagiso Trust, we're trying to establish a community of practice and radical collaboration and collaborative governance of people that can go out there and start talking to people and teaching people how to be more collaborative. Because coalitions could be our biggest saviour or our biggest failure. I'm pessimistic at the moment about coalitions. But we have to upskill people in terms of collaboration skills and radical collaboration skills to make sure that the coalition can work in a collaborative state for the best interest of the community.

Chris Steyn (16:46.104)

Thank you. That was Paul Smith of Kagiso Trust speaking to BizNews. I'm Chris Steyn. Thank you, Paul.

Paul Smith (16:53.877)

Thank you, Christ

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