SPEEDY MASHILO | Municipalities race against time to highlight their achievements

As local government elections approach, the country’s 257 municipalities are racing against time as their terms come to an end, accompanied by a need to account for what they have done for their residents in the five years since the 2021 elections.

As we now get into the activities of our youth month, also focused on men’s mental wellness, we need to bear in mind that there are only months left before South Africans make those decisive crosses next to their preferred councillor’s name.

With that in mind, the end of June also marks the end of the financial year for municipalities and they have to account for how allocated funds were used and, critically, if much-needed services were delivered.

The budgets that would have been passed when the clock strikes midnight on June 30 will be inherited by the new post-election councils. Notwithstanding their subsequent integrated development plans, they will be restricted to the proverbial cheque that would have been signed by the end of June.

More than R700bn was budgeted for the country’s municipalities in the year 2025/26. This is according to the National Treasury’s latest Section 71 report, covering July to December 2025.

Unspent budgets have been a key challenge for municipalities and provinces in recent years. These are not merely due to provincial and local government entities not prioritising service delivery but because the Treasury is specific when it comes to budgeted line items and how these are accounted for.

The reality is that our municipalities have instabilities such as threats by rogue business forums, nonpayment of services, skills shortages and capacity issues in key areas such as their revenue and finance departments.

The continued concerns raised by state institutions are not taken for granted, as they are of genuine concern and reflect badly on those in office.

We should, as government leaders, be grateful that in our constitutional democracy we have institutions such as the Treasury and the auditor-general that continue to not only uphold and ask all of us to be accountable but are also well run by professionals who want to see the government doing better.

In Mpumalanga, we have three district municipalities and 17 local municipalities. The fact that there is no metro, as in provinces such as KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, has not stopped us from working hard to address the challenges faced by our local councils.

Yes, there have been challenges with service delivery, though the provincial leadership has emphasised building the capacity of municipalities, rural development, infrastructure delivery and fighting corruption.

As the provincial department of co-operative governance, human settlements, and traditional affairs, we have been hard at work with our municipalities.

We are prioritising financial stability and working to address poor budgeting that can affect service delivery and make us miss targets and fail to budget for maintenance.

Municipalities must be encouraged to terminate nonperforming contractors and service providers.

As we approach the November 4 elections, we will endeavour to support our municipalities in how best to address high personnel costs, high and unnecessary enlistment of contractors, lack of proper collection of revenue from residents, and the continued reliance on conditional grants.

These are challenges of today, and the new leadership coming into office will have to address them from the moment they take office.

• Mashilo is Mpumalanga’s MEC for human settlements, co-operative governance and traditional affairs.