The FW de Klerk Foundation notes with grave concern the warnings delivered before Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts that many South African municipalities are politically, administratively and financially unviable. As the country moves toward the 2026 Local Government Elections on 4 November, this is not merely a governance failure. It is a failure by those entrusted with constitutional duties. Section 152 of the Constitution requires municipalities to provide democratic and accountable government, sustainable services, social and economic development, and opportunities for communities to participate in local governance. Where municipalities collapse, that constitutional promise is broken in the daily lives of ordinary South Africans.

The Foundation draws particular attention to two dimensions of this crisis. First, municipal debt to Eskom has ballooned to over R130 billion, which BLSA CEO Busi Mavuso has described as the single biggest financial risk to Eskom’s recovery – a utility that South Africa spent years and hundreds of billions of rands rescuing from the consequences of state capture. National Treasury has now moved to terminate debt-relief programmes for 61 municipalities that consistently failed to meet their obligations, confirming that the accommodation of municipal dysfunction carries a national cost. Second, the Auditor-General has flagged collapsed governance at municipalities including Ditsobotla, Masilonyana and Maluti-a-Phofung, while Scopa chair Songezo Zibi has warned that elected representatives often worsen failure through procurement abuse and political interference. These are not isolated incidents. They are symptoms of a structural breakdown in local democratic accountability.

Section 195 of the Constitution requires public administration to be accountable, transparent, efficient and development-oriented. Municipalities that divert service-delivery revenue, fail to fill critical technical posts, accumulate unlawful debt and obstruct consequence management are in direct violation of that standard.

Ismail Joosub, Manager of Constitutional Advancement at the FW de Klerk Foundation, said: “Municipal collapse is not a technocratic problem. It is a failure by elected and appointed officials to honour clear constitutional obligations. The 2026 Local Government Elections must become a genuine reckoning. Voters deserve candidates who come with credible municipal recovery plans, clean audit commitments and the willingness to professionalise administrations rather than colonise them.”

Christo van der Rheede, Executive Director of the FW de Klerk Foundation, said: “South Africa cannot afford to enter another electoral cycle treating municipalities as patronage sites. The Constitution gives local government a defined and serious purpose. The 2026 elections must be fought on whether parties and candidates are prepared to honour that purpose – with ring-fenced service revenue, transparent scorecards and real consequences for those who fail.”

The FW de Klerk Foundation calls on all political parties and independent candidates contesting the 2026 Local Government Elections to publish credible municipal recovery plans before election day; to support ring-fencing of electricity and water revenue; to commit to merit-based appointments of professional city managers, CFOs and engineers; and to support citizen access to independent municipal performance data. South Africans are not asking for perfection. They are asking for functionally competent local government that honours the Constitution’s local democratic promise. That is the minimum voters should accept in November.