Thirty-two years into democracy, South Africa continues to grapple with a significant service delivery crisis, with residents across the country facing persistent challenges related to water, sanitation, electricity, and infrastructure.
As the country approaches key municipal elections in November, Johannesburg’s ongoing water crisis, alongside similar challenges in other major metros, is emerging as a critical political battleground.
Dr Uduak Johnson, Academic Programme Leader at the MANCOSA School of Public Administration believes that political parties should prioritize practical, achievable interventions and focus on the low-hanging fruits outlined below in the lead-up to the elections.
Access Improved, Challenges Remain
Stats SA’s 2025 General Household Survey shows that access to improved sanitation increased from 61.7% in 2002 to 84.0% in 2025, while household connection to mains electricity increased from 76.7% in 2002 to 90.6% in 2025.
But, the central issue ahead of the 2026 municipal elections is no longer only whether services exist, but whether municipalities can provide services that are reliable, sustainable and responsive to communities. Elections should therefore become a moment of accountability where political parties, councillors and municipal administrations explain how they will improve everyday experiences of governance.
“For instance, water access remains a serious concern. Access to tap water improved only marginally between 2002 and 2025, and declined in provinces such as Limpopo, Mpumalanga, the Free State and Gauteng. Limpopo’s access to tap water declined by 10.6 percentage points over the period.
Refuse removal also reflects deep spatial inequality. Stats SA reports that 84.9% of urban households received regular refuse removal services in 2025, compared with only 13.0% of rural households,” says Dr Johnson.
The most pressured areas are water reliability, sanitation, waste management, electricity distribution, municipal roads, and infrastructure maintenance. Water is especially urgent: the 2025 GHS indicates that 56.8% of households experienced water interruptions in 2025, with weekly interruptions most prevalent in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and KwaZulu-Natal.
“Sanitation has improved in access terms, but the quality and safety of sanitation remain uneven. Stats SA reported that 76.3% of South Africans had access to safely managed sanitation services, meaning nearly one in four still lacked safely managed sanitation,” says Dr Johnson.
A Governance and Capacity Challenge
These challenges demonstrate that the local government crisis is not simply an infrastructure problem. It is also a governance and institutional capacity challenge. Municipalities require the ability to plan, budget, maintain infrastructure, manage resources and respond effectively to citizens.
“The roots are not only technical but are governance-related. The Auditor-General’s 2023/24 local government report found that only 41 municipalities, or 16%, obtained clean audits, while audit improvement has been slow.
Key causes include weak financial management, unfunded budgets, ageing infrastructure, poor maintenance, irregular expenditure, procurement weaknesses, vacancies in technical posts, poor contract management, political instability in councils, and weak consequence management. AGSA further noted that although 59 municipalities improved since 2020/21, 40 regressed, showing that progress remains fragile and uneven,” says Dr Thandile Ncwana, Academic Programme Leader, from the MANCOSA School of Public Administration.
This indicates that improving service delivery requires more than additional funding. Municipalities must strengthen internal systems, ensure professional administration and create environments where officials are held accountable for performance.
Weakened Trust
Public trust has been significantly weakened. Afrobarometer reported in June 2026 that only 17% of South Africans believe local councillors often or always listen to ordinary people. Among poor respondents, 67% said ordinary citizens are never listened to. The 2025 South African Reconciliation Barometer also found that local government remains among the least trusted institutions, with confidence from only 26% of South Africans.
“The decline in public trust is important because municipalities are the closest sphere of government to citizens. When communities experience repeated service failures without explanations or corrective action, confidence in democratic institutions is weakened. The 2026 elections therefore provide an opportunity for citizens to demand a different approach based on transparency, accountability and measurable delivery commitments,” says Dr Johnson.
Municipalities should immediately prioritise visible and measurable service-delivery stabilisation. This includes repairing water leaks, reducing sewage spillages, restoring refuse-collection schedules, fixing potholes, improving response times to complaints, publishing service-delivery dashboards, enforcing contractor performance, and filling critical technical and financial vacancies. They must also act on Auditor-General findings, implement credible audit action plans, and strengthen Municipal Public Accounts Committees, internal audit units and risk committees.
Reforms and Interventions
Short-term interventions should focus on restoring public confidence through visible improvements. Communities often judge government performance through everyday experiences: whether water flows, whether refuse is collected, whether roads are maintained and whether complaints receive responses.
“Long-term reform must focus on professionalising local government. Municipalities need merit-based appointments, stable senior management, infrastructure asset-management plans, ring-fenced maintenance budgets, credible indigent registers, transparent procurement systems, improved revenue collection, and stronger intergovernmental planning,” says Dr Ncwana.
The National Treasury, COGTA, provincial governments and municipalities must align grants, infrastructure plans and performance monitoring so that funding follows credible delivery plans rather than political promises.
Professionalisation is particularly important because municipalities depend on specialised skills, including engineers, financial managers, planners and technical officials. Political leadership must provide direction and oversight without undermining administrative professionalism.
Working Towards a Plan
Political parties should publish municipality-specific delivery plans, not generic manifestos. Campaigns should explain how parties will address water interruptions, sanitation backlogs, electricity distribution failures, waste removal, roads, billing systems, and municipal finances. Furthermore, the parties should also disclose mayoral candidates, technical turnaround teams, anti-corruption commitments and measurable first-100-day priorities.
“Before voting, citizens should ask political parties practical questions: What are your priorities for this municipality? Who will implement them? What budget will support them? How will residents measure progress? Election promises should be connected to realistic delivery plans rather than broad political statements. Voters should demand clear delivery targets, public reporting timelines, transparent budgets, credible councillor oversight, anti-corruption mechanisms, and consequences for non-performance. Parties must explain how they will prevent cadre deployment, protect municipal administrations from political interference, and ensure that councillors oversee rather than interfere in procurement and administration,” says Dr Johnson.
Citizens should also remain active after elections by participating in ward meetings, monitoring municipal plans, questioning councillor performance and using available accountability mechanisms. Democratic accountability should not only happen during elections but should continue throughout the term of office.
Moving Beyond Lip Service
As South Africa prepares for another pivotal municipal election, service delivery must move beyond political rhetoric and become the central measure of governance performance. While long-term reforms remain essential, municipalities can restore public confidence through practical, visible improvements that directly affect daily life.
The MANCOSA School of Public Administration believes that stronger accountability, professional administration and clear delivery plans can help address persistent challenges. Ultimately, sustainable progress will depend on leadership that prioritises implementation, transparency and measurable outcomes for communities.
