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The 2023 report by the Auditor General (AG) revealed that only 38 out of 257 municipalities received a clean audit report, indicating a decline from the previous year. The underlying issues were poor leadership, lack of accountability, and a shortage of skills. The AG went on to confirm that local governments experienced growing dysfunctionality, poor financial mismanagement, administrative instability, and crumbling service infrastructure, all leading to declining living standards for communities.
To address this negative trend and to promote the future prosperity of communities and municipalities in South Africa, the following two critical factors must be addressed:
- The political will to transform municipalities into functional institutions and to collaborate effectively and authentically with non-government stakeholders.
- The ability of non-government stakeholders to unite and structure themselves to collaborate with their municipalities for better outcomes and become active citizens.
Municipal institutions are only as good as those leading and working within them. Therefore, developing an effective, purposeful, and responsive local government sector requires committed leadership and management teams, including the executive team, to drive the change. An aligned and dedicated municipal executive team plays a crucial role in shaping the transformation of underperforming municipalities.
The successful performance of municipalities directly correlates with the attitude, purpose, and skills of their leaders and staff. Evidence from both private and public sectors shows that purpose-driven organizations outperform their counterparts. In South African municipalities, a lack of effective leadership, management capability, and political culture hinders progress and development within many communities.
The journey of municipal transformation and improved performance must start from the top of the organization. The municipal executive team, including the mayoral committee and the municipal senior management team, must be held responsible for fostering a purposeful institutional culture and held accountable by government and local non-government stakeholders for any lack of performance.
The key question lies in whether our current batch of municipal executives have the capability to abandon the prevailing self-serving political and leadership culture and politically oriented culture to adopt a new brand of leadership that effectively transform underperforming municipalities and to instil a community-centric culture. The goal for municipal executives should be to recreate purpose-driven municipalities that genuinely engage with and serve the community’s needs, promoting trust and nurturing stakeholder collaboration.
Achieving this outcome requires a new breed of municipal executives, managers, and leaders who are committed to the following actions:
- To reignite authentic purpose among staff and ensure that the organizational strategy inspires a strong sense of purpose, belonging, and community centricity.
- Creating a municipal identity statement that upholds purpose and above values as non-negotiable principles, with clear consequences for any deviations.
- To react appropriately to violations of the identity statement to demonstrate the commitment to customer centricity and purpose.
- Commit to the long-term efforts of building a purposeful organization and reconnecting municipal employees to the importance of their service delivery work and its impact on communities.
In addition, to support municipal transformation, active citizenry is essential. This includes voting, attending municipal meetings, participating in local dialogues and contributing to the solution. Community stakeholders must organize themselves in a manner that enables collaboration with the municipality actively working towards positive change.
To shape an enduring collaborative and purposeful environment that fosters small-town prosperity and rejuvenation, leadership teams from communities and municipalities must embrace behaviour change that promotes an enabling environment for development. Radical stakeholder collaboration is the key to future prosperity, and it includes rebuilding relationships and trust, deeply understanding local issues, participating in inclusive ideation and planning, and solving problems together for the greater good of the community.
When the dust settles, we all need to ask ourselves the critical question, what role did I play in the success or demise of my municipality and community? Working together with a clear sense of common purpose can pave the way for a brighter and more prosperous future for future generations. Get involved.
Read also:
- Corruption and Social Justice: The Struggle for service delivery
- Professionalising local government: fostering accountability
- Exploring the impact of electoral reform on every South African citizen
